Anime Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive
by EDK
Summary: Ranma had always dreamed of seeing more of the world... But he never thought it'd be quite like this! New friends! More dangerous foes... Five teams looking for the same five Stones! Pairings to be decided... A R.5/PROO/MULT story. First attempt so, R&R!
1. Discovery of the Crown

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2, Power Rangers or any of the other series I may use. More's the pity...

/

"_'As we rode off into the sunset, I reflected on the journey me and my companions had gone on. It had started in the USA, with me being asked to continue the search for a priceless object: the Holy Grail! From there, we travelled all the way to Turkey via both Venice and Nazi Germany. It was a long and winding road, filled with betrayals and unexpected allies. Although we may not have succeeded in claiming the Holy Grail, losing it just as it was nearly in my grasp, I had still received a reward that was just as important to me... The recognition of my father, which I had subconsciously desired for so long, had been given to me. When he had finally called me by the name I'd chosen for myself instead of Junior in his usual chiding manner, it made everything I'd gone through over the first few years of my life worth it. I didn't have a clue of what possible future adventures were ahead on my path, but I looked forward to facing them, one step at a time…'_ Well that's enough reading for today, I think." The black-haired, blue-eyed youth, who could shift to a red-haired girl with just a splash of cold water, closed the book titled "The Journal of Dr. Henry Jones the 2nd" with a soft thump. He smiled to himself, reflecting on what he'd just read:_ 'Man those were some awesome adventures that college professor of archaeology had… To just see some of the wonders of the modern and ancient world would be incredible, but he also fought to keep some of the most priceless and mythical treasures out of the wrong hands along the way... That took a lot of courage and was truly incredible! I wonder, will **I** ever get a chance to do something like that?'_

"RANMA, WHERE ARE YOU BAKA! I'VE GOT A BONE TO PICK WITH YOU," an angry female voice shouted out, breaking the calmness of the area. Ranma sighed as he put the journal back into his schoolbag. Akane was just home from school, having to stay late at school again due to her hot temper landing her in detention. It had been the fifth time in as many days and it was clear she was still stewing over it. Ranma shook his head in dismay, wondering where it had all gone wrong between them…

It had been two weeks after the failed wedding attempt and things had taken a turn for the worst. At first, it had seemed that things were going back to normal. Unfortunately, any trust Akane had built up with Ranma over the past two years of their joint misadventures had been destroyed. This was due to her misguided belief that he had told Nabiki to let the other fiancées know about the wedding, so that they could crash it. Ranma had denied this charge of hers, with his story being backed up by nearly everyone in the house at the time: Soun, who had realized his mistake in forcing the wedding on both parties involved. He had admitted that he had thought they should've let things settle down before doing anything, but Gemna had convinced him to go ahead while the relationship seemed to be going smoothly. Nodoka and Kasumi, who had been surprisingly very reluctant to admit her part in the whole affair, had also revealed they had invited almost everyone that had crashed the wedding, due to the simple fact that there had been no obvious indications that anyone was going to cause trouble. But even they weren't foolish enough to expect the Kunos would behave themselves, particularly given their past actions in front of Nodoka, so no invites had gone out to the Kuno household. Several other precautionary measures had been taken, like Nodoka and Kasumi doing all the catering themselves three days before the event. After all this, the Kunos had found out about the wedding anyway, thanks to Sasuke spying on the last-minute preparations the night before. Finally, even Nabiki had, admitted it was partly her fault that the invites had been delivered, which she had done for a fee of course, asking it from the recipients. She'd claimed that she honestly thought that almost all the rivals and other fiancées had finally accepted the fact that Ranma had chosen Akane. Also, she had thought she'd be able to get a cut of whatever wedding presents she had expected the couple to get. Ranma wasn't fully convinced by this story, due to his past dealings with Nabiki, but had let it slide. For this time, at least, she seemed fully sincere in her words. And that was as close to honesty as you'd get from Nabiki, barring outside influences.

But nothing and no-one could convince Akane of these facts. She kept blaming Ranma for the whole mess, despite all the evidence on the day that showed most of the other parties had acted on their own initiative, without anyone influencing them. Her temper and attitude had gotten a lot worse too. This was partly due to the fact that the people who followed all of Kuno's idiotic proclamations most fanatically, had not only foolishly re-assembled the Hentai Horde, but they had gone back to the whole stupid idea that to date Akane, they first had to beat her. This had gone disastrously wrong, for them at least, with most of them needing to head to the nurse's office every morning for treatment of minor injuries. Akane's raw strength had gone way up from the day he had first arrived in Nerima, but her level of control over it had remained about the same. This meant that she was leaving nasty bruises on her attackers, if they were lucky. A few of her more persistent admirers had actually needed to be sent into the hospital for X-rays and other tests, after she had unleashed a powerful blow towards one of them. They had gotten out of the way of her fist, but her punch had continued on. The concrete wall behind them had shattered when her punch had connected with it. This had caught everyone within range in the shower of debris expect Akane, due to the angle of her strike. Fortunately, it was a false alarm with no serious injuries, but some of the parents had tried sue both the school and her for reckless endangerment of lives. It had been the one of the few times in her life, she had been grateful for the Kuno clan's influence in the area. Their lawyers had squashed the charges that anyone had tried to bring against either clan, either using out of court settlements or intimidation. _'Typical, they act as if they're a law unto themselves and if they hurt someone, they don't care or say that it's their victims who are at fault,'_ Ranma snorted darkly, disgusted at both Akane and the Kuno clan, with their blatant abuses of power. _'I might not be better than them at times, but I am at least willing to admit I've got a problem with that kind of thing.'_

Another, more serious part of Akane's problem now, was that her trust in both her sisters had taken a nasty beating. And it didn't look like it would be as easy for her to get over as it used to be. She had considered it their worst betrayal to date, including when they had dumped the whole marriage arrangement on her when Ranma had just arrived, without any choice in the matter. Her trust in Kasumi had been hit the hardest by this event. She now took everything that her eldest sister said with a shipload of salt, which was unfair to Kasumi since she was normally very honest with her baby sister. This meant her cooking, which had been improving since she started listening to her, took a nosedive back to her earlier level of skill. And the less she had to deal with Nabiki regarding anything, the happier she was! She was extremely angry at the discovery of just how much Nabiki had actually used her as means to make money. If she wasn't selling risqué photos of her performing various everyday actions, or the setting up of betting pools for nearly any possible situation could happen, Nabiki was selling information she had wanted kept personal. "I had things bad enough around here without my own greedy, frigid snow queen of a sister adding fuel to the fire", was how she put it. Nabiki had winced slightly at what Akane had said; showing that she still cared for her sister despite her actions.

Kasumi wasn't acting much better than her youngest sister. She had normally been a kind and gentle person, but in the last few days she had been acting a little cold and mean-spirited towards him. Simple things like giving all the hot water to his father and pretending she'd forgotten about him, skipping serving him seconds when it came to mealtimes, frowning at him for no obvious reason and forgetting to make him a packed lunch for school. It might have seemed like only minor details to most people in Nerima, but it was obvious to Ranma. _'She's mad, both at herself and everyone around her, so she's taking it out on me. Probably feels that if I had just agreed to the wedding vows with Akane, that things would have been just fine. Unfortunately, logic and rational thought has a habit of going out the window around here, despite what she hoped would happen…'_ Ranma, contrary to what all of his peers and fiancées believed, was not an idiot. This reputation wasn't helped by his father, who had tried to encourage him into rash actions. He just couldn't perform well with the whole idea of standardised tests and learning methods. Also, even if he showed his smarts, most people wouldn't believe it and somehow rationalise he was cheating, not to mention that it'd be another thing for Akane to complain about. He was disappointed in Kasumi's behaviour though, he had thought she was better than that. _'Sure I cause quite a bit of trouble around the place from time to time, but it's not always my fault! And I've tried to keep the collateral damage around here to a minimum, but no-one got the memo during the wedding. So blaming me for everything isn't fair!'_

Genma was acting much as he usually did, having nothing better to do expect whine to anyone within earshot about how "weak" and "ungrateful" his son was. To be honest, everyone had tuned him out after the first ten seconds of this. The Kunos were as insane as ever, with both Tatewaki and Kodachi trying to force Ranma into marriage or attempting to kill him, depending on what form he was in. Uyko and Shampoo hadn't been as persistent as before in trying to push their claims on marrying him forwards. In fact, they hadn't even once tried to jump him since he got back a week ago. Both Ryoga and Mousse hadn't been seen around the local area since the wedding, with not so much as a sudden attack on him. Nabiki, and this one had been a real shocker for most people, had actually been somewhat neutral towards him. She hadn't done anything to stop people trying to find him, but she had refused to sell any info on his activities and current location. In fact, every business venture she ran that dealt with him had been shut down and no date had given for resumption of service. She even refused to sell any pictures of Ranma-chan to Kuno, no matter how much he offered. She'd also given her father more than enough money to re-build the dojo out of her own funds. _'That's odd, but I guess she felt guiltier about this then I thought,'_ Ranma mused.

Nodoka had been the biggest surprise, however. She'd been really apologetic for all her actions towards Ranma. He had been really annoyed at his father once he'd learnt the truth about the seppuku pledge. Originally, it had only applied to his father to try and keep him in line, given his tendency to think with his stomach first instead of his head, but he'd tricked Ranma into signing it with his finger painting. And since she knew that Genma had done this to try and get out of his deal with her, Nodoka had to enforce it on both parties, no matter how much she didn't want to… Her only option had been to make the terms of a "man among men" so vague, she could eventually declare it fulfilled easily, but it'd make Genma sweat trying to ensure his son would meet it without knowing what she had in mind. Ranma had ended up a little rough around the edges, but overall he was everything she had wanted, which was something akin to Ryu Kumon. She'd planed to explain this to Ranma when they finally met, in private, so they could work out something together. But since he had always been either hidden in plain sight as Ranko Tendo, or Genma was so close at hand, she hadn't got a chance to let him know… As for her quirky obsession with grandchildren, it had a double purpose. The main one was to throw people off balance, so she could observe them without them taking her seriously. And the other was that she just wanted some kids to spoil, since she just never got a chance to spend time with Ranma when he was growing up. Ranma sighed. He had wanted to lash out at his mother for making his life so awkward with some of her ridiculous ideas, but given the very difficult situation she had been forced into by Genma, he supposed that it was understandable what she did. After all, Genma seemed to have always been pulling stupid stunts like that, even on his own wife.

What he hadn't expected however, was when Nodoka had revealed to him just what she did for a living. She was a freelance archaeologist and college professor, who had been paid by Tokyo University to recover certain items for them in the past and be a substitute teacher at times, during the timeframe of his training trip. It had been quite a very profitable job for her, making more then enough money to repay all the people Genma had cheated over the years. His standard M.O. had been to get what he had wanted by promising Ranma's hand in marriage to their daughters, he then made a run for it with both Ranma and what he'd got later that night. Most parties had accepted cash to drop the whole arrangement that had been made. However, a few of them had still gone ahead with trying to locate Ranma to go ahead with the deal, even though they had been paid back for their loss. But Ranma had beaten them all anyway…

Her greatest dream and personal quest in the field of archaeology however, was to find the Corona Aurora or Crown of the Gods. According to some of the legends she'd located, it was an incredibly powerful artifact, with the potential for great good, but also for great evil! This had made it a target for many thieves. But only two, a pair of brothers called Flurious and Moltor, had even got close to its original resting place. But as they attempted to grab it, the crown itself cursed them, taking away their humanity, before its guardian had sealed them away in separate locations. Flurious's form became that of a monster associated with ice, while Moltor's form changed to a being of fire. To prevent anything like this from happening again or the power from falling into the wrong hands, the Sentinel Knight, guardian of the crown, scattered all five of the crown's jewels across the entire world, before hiding the crown itself. To this day, no one had ever found any trace of either the crown or a single jewel, but Nodoka wasn't about to give up on looking for it. Ranma was impressed by this story, it had everything he liked. There was a touch of magic about it and it was filled with lots of action & adventure. He had believed his mother when she said the crown was real and her claim that she was going to find it someday… He knew that her determination was akin to his own when someone had challenged him, both of them would keep trying until they were victorious or dead. She'd left about a week ago, following up another possible lead on the crown in Tibet. His contemplative mood was interrupted by Akane's bellowing.

"RANMA WHERE ARE YOU, YOU BLASTED PERVERT? IT'S DINNER TIME, YOUR FAVOURITE TIME OF DAY! IF I FIND YOU'VE GONE OVER TO ONE OF THOSE HUSSIES FOR FREE FOOD, I'LL…" Ranma winced at some of the things she had threatened him with, where she was going to find a caber though, was beyond him. He waited until she was taking a breather from her ranting before he spoke.

"Hold your horses, would you? If you'd bothered to check with your father, you'd know that I've been on the roof the whole time since I got home… Give me just a moment and I'll be right down," Ranma shouted back, but not as loudly as she'd yelled. Akane normally didn't take that tone of voice from any of her equals or inferiors well, especially Ranma. He quickly climbed down from the roof using the ladder instead of jumping down as he usually did, not wanting to overtax his recovering body, which had been badly hurt in the exploding dojo at the end of the whole wedding mess. He'd been in hospital for the last week; with no visitors expect his mum. Just as he made it to the ground, his whole body began to shake and he started to cough. It actually was bad enough to make him double over and put his hand up to his mouth to control his breathing. When he withdrew it after the coughing died down, droplets of blood were plainly visible on it. He just stared at it in shock, not quiet believing what he was seeing. _'Damnit, not now! I thought it was under control, but looks like Doc was right. I'm still not fully healed and he said not to push myself any harder then I need to…'_

**_(Flashback begins…)_**

**"Ugh, what happened? Last thing I can remember is trying to get everyone out of the dojo before it exploded. Then there was a blinding flash, a loud bang and everything went dark, expect for what appeared to be a faint light at the end of a tunnel," Ranma groaned as he slowly opened his eyes, feeling aches and pains in places he didn't know he had. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust. The ceiling was unfamiliar to him but the person who was tending to his wounds was a pleasant surprise: "Doctor Tofu! Am I glad to see you; long time no see, about a year isn't it… Where have you been travelling for that length of time? I thought you had gone on a trip to control your reactions whenever Kasumi was around you or her name was mentioned… How did it go?" Ranma then cringed, only now remembering just how bad Doctor Tofu had got in the past. But there was no crazy reaction from the doctor; in fact his glasses didn't even fog up. "So, I guess it was a successful trip then, Doc… And just where are we?"**

**"Yes it was Ranma. I still care deeply for Kasumi, but I'm able to keep my head when it matters most now…" Tofu replied in a clam even tone. "You're in a hospital in the Azabu Jûban area, since your mother decided it'd be safer for your recovery if you had a calm environment. This means no one but the three of us will know where you are for the moment…"**

**"Fair enough Doc," Ranma responded with a weak grin, "but I don't get one thing. How do you know my mum and just how did she manage to contact you?"**

**"Well she's actually an old college friend I hadn't seen in several years since we graduated," the doctor replied, wearing a small smile. "How she contacted me, well I'd left her a contact number to use if it was an emergency or she wanted to arrange a reunion. I thought nothing would ever come of it until two hours ago, when she rang me. She was quite frantic, but I could piece together that her son was badly injured and she needed my help to treat him. I came as quickly as I could… Imagine my surprise when I found out that my patient was you! Once I'd finished treating you we sat down to catch up. Finding out she was your mother and that she hadn't seen you since you were six was fairly surprising, to say the least. So I filled her in on the first twelve months of your stay in Nerima that I knew of… She was most surprised about some of the details, why didn't you tell her the truth about everything?"**

**Ranma winced. "Well Doc, I couldn't just horrify mom with the train wreck that's been my life. She wouldn't be able to take some of the facts about the training from hell that pops put me through. It's just too gruesome! But I'll give her a sanitised version of events while I'm recovering. So what the damage level this time? Anything you can do to speed the healing process up..."**

**"I'm sorry Ranma, there's nothing I can do to help you recover any faster then what I've already done. Your body and mind just can't take the strains you've been forced to put on them anymore…" Doctor Tofu answered, wearing a very solemn expression. "The simple fact is the battle with Saffron was too much for the rapid healing factor you've developed. It took nearly every bit of energy you had to beat him, even tapping into your own life-force directly, leaving you running on the proverbial fumes. Therefore, the whole wedding fiasco was a step too far for your body and it just shut down. That's the reason why you collapsed in the dojo, just before Happosai's bomb went off. Luckily for everyone, except you of course, no-one else was inside at the time, since most of them wouldn't have survived it. You were thrown clear of the dojo by the explosion, but it left third degree burns all over your torso and you shattered all your limbs due to the way you landed. Thanks to your mother's prompt calling for an ambulance and directing them to come here, I was able to set your limbs properly. You'll be up and about in a week, but you'll only be properly healed in about a month's time. Nodoka's already contacted the school and the Tendo dojo saying that you're alright and you'll be back in a week. But I'm afraid your mind is a different matter. You seem to have developed all the classic signs of combat fatigue and that worries me deeply. All I can suggest for now is you try to take it easy for a while, that means at least six months without doing any martial arts. That means no katas, battling, spars or anything in that vein! If you have no choice in the matter, and knowing your luck that'll be the case, try to end the combat in a non-lethal manner as soon as possible. Anymore high stress situations like that last major battle with Saffron and your mind could permanently snap under the strain, inducing a permanent berserker state!"**

**"Huh, you mean like the Cat-fist Doc?" Ranma asked in a small voice. Nabiki had somehow managed to record one of the, thankfully rare, times he had gone into it. She had offered to show to him, for a generous donation of course. While it had put a massive dent into his savings, it had been worth it just to know what he got up to while in that state. And to be honest, it had made for grim viewing since it showed just uncontrollable he could be. While he was fairly harmless to those who his kitty mind had designated as friends, those who were in any way openly hostile to him or those he cared about got badly mauled, unless they managed to somehow distract his attention off them. This was actually done fairly easily, depending on how quick the person was to react. One thing that had really bugged him about the whole Cat-fist technique was that the only person that could ease him out of it with any sort of reliability was Akane. Anyone else, even his mother had to wait until his cat side decided to fall asleep naturally… This had both worried and annoyed him. Worried, because since he had a feeling his relationship with Akane never was going to be very smooth consistently and she wouldn't be willing to help him out if she was in a bad mood. It annoyed him, because this was one of the things Akane used to brag about to her rivals when she thought Nodoka wasn't about. She claimed that Ranma liked her more than the rest of them, citing the reason that whenever he went into the Cat-fist state, she was the only one that could control him. But he was shocked out of his thoughtful state by what Dr. Tofu said next…**

**"No, it would be at least a thousand times worse! At least with the Cat-fist, you retained a small sense of recognition of those you cared about; due to the fact your mind in that state was more like a small curious kitten for a long time. You've heard how you behaved towards your friends while in that state of mind. Sure, you attacked your father any time you saw him in that state, but since he was the one who caused the problem in the first place, that's understandable… However, given how much pressure you've been under recently and the fact you were forced to kill someone, even though he were re-born right after the battle ended, I fear that has caused you to become much darker. That little kitten may have grown up into a man-eating tiger… And to make matters worse, the ways that we can use to snap you out of that state are no longer as effective as they once were. Someone throwing water on you to activate your curse anymore just won't work; this is due to the fact you've now begun to accept the fact that the curse might be part of you for the rest of your life. And given the way that Akane has been treating you lately from what I heard, the neko part of you has more than likely lost its trust in her! In fact, it might attack her on sight, to try and protect you from her. Well, either that or it'll flee from her on sight. There may be others that your neko mindset will grow to trust given time, but somehow I doubt it'll be anyone around Nerima. But only the passage of time now will tell how you have been affected by your recent battles."**

**_(End flashback…)_**

_'Well, nothing has triggered the Cat-Fist in a while! And no-one would attempt to fight me except Tatewaki and he's very easy to beat without pushing myself. All things considered, I've gotten off lightly… So, I might as well go and see what's for dinner now. Knowing my luck lately though, Akane's got another batch of her more "exotic" cooking she wants me to try and won't take no for an answer! Better to just get it over with and hope it's someway edible…'_ With that thought, Ranma got back up and marched back inside, only pausing to wipe his bloodied hand off on his red shirt. The only reason he actually wore red almost all the time was to hide his bleeding wounds when he got them in combat.

But Ranma had been so distracted by re-calling Dr. Tofu's instructions on not fighting unless there was no other option he hadn't noticed he had someone watching him. When they had seen his bloodied hand from the coughing fit, they had nearly gasped in shock, but they somehow managed to keep their composure and not reveal their presence. By the time they had recovered their wits, Ranma had recovered and gone inside. The looked at the door Ranma had entered, with a sad look approaching sympathy, something rarely directed towards Ranma. _'Kami, what have I done to him? How much has he had to go through over the years and he's never really once shown just how much it actually hurt him, only pretending that was less serious than in reality. Every time he broke down or had a moment of weakness, we should have been supportive of him. But what did we do instead? We taunted and teased him without mercy! I'm a blasted fool for treating Ranma the way I have,'_ the mysterious person thought as they left their hiding spot and attempted go to about their normal tasks, but their thoughts just kept going back to Ranma and their actions towards him, wondering what they could have changed in the way they had treated him.

Dinnertime was a fairly quiet affair for all involved. Fortunately, Kasumi had insisted she cook the meal today. Ranma ate up his food fairly quickly, but still retained some of his dignity and his table manners were reasonable. Genma, on the other hand, soon got up to his old habit of stealing pieces of from everyone's plates, despite having received more than everyone else combined at the start. This meant everyone else had to eat a bit quicker than usual, while fighting off Genma's attempts to steal their food. Kasumi was having a conversation with Soun, about him possibly starting to teach martial arts in the dojo again. Nabiki actually seemed to be distracted for some reason, which was most unlike her. Akane though, alternated between glaring hatefully at Ranma and eating her dinner. This continued for a while, until finally Nabiki noticed it as everyone had finished up, shaking her out of the funk she was in. "Hey sis, just what is your problem with Ranma lately? He hasn't done anything to insult you or that could reflect badly on you… He's been studying hard for his exams, pulling study sessions in the library throughout lunchtime and ignoring all possible distractions. And don't bother trying to blame him for all your trips to detention lately… I know that it's been your own fault entirely, over-reacting when some of the boys who were interested in you asked for a date," she asked in a non-confrontational tone of voice, just loud enough for anyone who was paying attention to hear. Kasumi, who had by this time finished speaking with her father, frowned at these new details about how Akane was behaving at school, chalking it up to Ranma's influence. Nabiki continued: "Don't you realize that they didn't bother with the foolish method that Kuno and his loyal followers have been using? There was no need to punch them in the stomach quite as hard as that, you nearly broke some of their ribs! A simple no would have been more than enough! You really need to start controlling that temper of yours, before someone gets seriously hurt… Most normal people can't take that kind of physical punishment. The only reason Ranma can take it is due to Genma training him from such a young age in things that no-one and especially not a child should have gone through…"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN; I NEED TO CONTROL MY TEMPER! I CAN CONTROL IT JUST FINE..." Akane shouted, slamming her fist in the table, rattling the empty plates and drawing everyone else's attention to their conversation. "You honestly believe that baka has been studying in the library? He's just goofing off like he usually does! He'll never amount to anything, just like his mother… I mean, according to Mr Saotome, she's spent nearly the last twenty years of her life and more money than what Nabiki's made off the Kunos and everyone in schools with scams over the years," and here Akane's tone of voice started to turn quite cynical and mocking. "And she's done this for what purpose? Looking for something out of a child's bedtime story! I mean really, a crown of the gods? I know that there are some weird magic items and places in the world, but something like that doesn't exist… Never has, never will! This week, she's looking in Tibet… Who knows where she'll be looking next? I looked up to her, but she needs to learn to give up on a hopeless situation, otherwise she's a fool for chasing an impossible dream like that…" Akane was about to say more, but a sudden drop in the surrounding temperature made her freeze. Everyone slowly turned to the source of the temperature drop: Ranma himself.

"That's enough Akane! I can't believe you just said that…" Ranma's voice was soft and calm, but there was no mistaking the level of rage that he was sending out subconsciously. Only the Soul of Ice prevented him from lashing out at Akane. "Mom really liked you and your sisters, seeing as she and your mother were old friends. She always thought of you as the prime candidate among all the possible fiancées I had due to my father's stupid deals… And this is how you repay her? Mocking her dreams behind her back! I'd like to say thanks for the dinner Kasumi and say sorry for my outburst. I'll take my leave of you all now for the moment to go for a walk around the district, before I do something I'll regret… But all of you should know this: my motto that I never lose no matter what came from my mother's side of the family, not my father's!" And with that, Ranma left, leaving a lingering chill. Everyone watched him as he left, Kasumi with a cold stare at Ranma's back since she refused to accept Ranma's apology...

Soun instantly turned on his youngest daughter, going into full demon head mode: "AKANE, YOU SHOULD APLOGISE TO RANMA THE VERY INSTANT HE COMES BACK! SMEARING HIS MOTHER'S GOOD NAME LIKE THAT WAS TOTALLY UNCALLED FOR…" Taking a deep breath to calm down he continued: "Your mother would be ashamed of you right now, she never spoke ill of anyone behind their back like that. I know I've not been as good a father as I should have been ever since she died, but I plan to change that, starting right now. So what do you say? How about you let go of your past grudges and start afresh with not only Ranma, but your rivals for marrying him: Uyko and Shampoo… A sincere apology would be a good start on mending fences with them. Who knows, they might become very good friends to you since you have so much in common with them already, love for Ranma, an interest in the martial arts and mutual experiences that not one of your other friends have taken part in…"

Akane quickly preformed the Crouch of the White Tiger, while saying: "Sure thing daddy! I will apologize as soon Ranma gets back…" But, secretly she scoffed in her mind: _'Yeah right! I've no intention of taking my words back for real! As for making friends with those two witches, not in this lifetime... I mean really, Shampoo's just a purple-haired ditz with no clue how Japanese society works. Uyko, she's totally focused on running her stand. Besides they've nothing to teach me! As for Nodoka, she's just not playing with a full deck. She's off searching for something in Tibet that quite frankly, doesn't exist!'_

(Just at that moment, somewhere inside an ancient temple, high in the Tibetan mountains)

_'Finally, I've found it after all these years of searching! The Corona Aurora… Most people said that it was nothing but a fairytale and scoffed at my claims that I would find it. Well I've proved them wrong now, or at least I will have made a start on it, once I've gotten this thing back to civilization! But I'll also use its powers for the greater good, not just myself…'_ Nodoka grinned in triumph at her prize as it sat on a plinth in the centre of the room she'd just entered. It, at first glance, seemed to be just a plain looking golden crown, styled just like the crowns in Europe from the Middle Ages were. But unlike those, there were five empty spaces for gems to be inserted into the front of the crown. And since she was fairly sure she had been the only person to enter the temple in well over a thousand years, she was almost certain that it was the real Corona Aurora. But she suppressed the urge she had to just rush over to the crown and grab it. She had just gotten through several different traps, each much more challenging then the last, the deeper she had gotten into the temple. It was a fool who would charge in blindly, even if their prize was within their grasp. But, after carefully checking every part of the room and the plinth itself, she was satisfied it was safe. As she picked up the crown and dusted it off, she spoke aloud to herself: "With this, I'll try to bring riches and happiness to the world…" Just then, a crash of thunder sounded inside the room and flashes of yellow lighting sparked across the room, as it began to shake violently as if an earthquake had just started. If someone was in orbit at the time, they'd have seen an incredibly bright yellow pulse of light spreading out all across the galaxy from the Earth's surface…

If they had bothered to follow it, they would have seen it make its way through the solar system. Along the way, it passed a planet or small moon with a medium shade of blue. If someone had sent a probe down to the surface, they'd have discovered the entire surface was covered in ice… Just as the wave flashed by the planet, it collapsed a glacier with its power. Inside, a figure got to their feet. At first glance you'd mistake them for a human male, but no normal human had their hair shaped like ice crystals. In his right hand, he held a staff adorned with a snowflake-like sculpture on top. His voice when he spoke would have chilled anyone who heard it to the bone: "The Corona Aurora has been found…" before he started laughing manically…

As the energy wave continued on its way, it had to pass through the planet Saturn. The planet's surface was covered in rocky islands and oceans of lava. As the pulse passed through the planet's atmosphere, the lava began to bubble and boil, as if the temperature had all of a sudden shot through the roof. A mysterious figure broke the lava's surface, rising up into the air. On closer examination, the figure appeared human shaped and male, but with three horns coming out the back and sides of his head. He spoke in a harsh whisper: "At last! I'm Free…"

Finally, somewhere else entirely, someone looked up as they felt the surge in energy. A small, cold smile crept across their face. "So the Corona Aurora has been found, has it? Excellent, everything is happening just as my Seer predicted before I had to _'remove'_ her... Such a pity that she decided to resist my plans, but she's replaceable! Soon though, the time of my ascension to power will be close at hand. All will bow before me and my kingdom will be re-born! And this time, nothing will destroy it, not even time itself…"

Still in the temple, unaware of these galactic events happening, Nodoka was only aware that the floor between her and the doorway was collapsing. She made a desperate leap to make it to the area in front of the door, which was the only part remaining stable. It was a very close thing, with her left hand only just grabbing the ledge, while she grasped the Corona Aurora in it. Her right hand had a firm grip on the ledge though, which ensured she didn't fall. She pulled herself up and lay on her back, turning back to the plinth as she tried to catch her breath. Just then, a glowing golden figure appeared to her. Its voice echoed as it spoke: "You have found the Corona Aurora! And with that you have awoken great evil… Listen closely; this is what you must do, there's not much time…

/

Well, what do you think folks? Like it or loath it... Review to tell me what you think. As you can see, I've merged PR:OO and Ranma 1/2 together, with the role of the Red Ranger falling on Ranma's shoulders. His mother will be taking on the role of Andrew Hartford. The rest of the Nerima regulars will be showing up from time to time, but most of them won't be part of the team of Rangers or their support crew! You can try and guess who'll be coming from Nerima (only three and two will be showing up later on), if you get it right AND have a plausible reason for why I picked them, you get to decide something special with me via PM.

I've been selecting the other Rangers from three other anime series, not including Rama. I've tried to pick them by matching their personalities closely to the original PR:OO cast, but some of them may surprise you! Who wants to try and figure them out? If you can, tell me what you think of my choices…

Red Ranger: already selected.

Black Ranger: a borderline case between the good guys and the bad guys, depending on which side of his personality is in control. Has a interest in Egyptian items, rings in particular.

Pink Ranger: only a minor character in the Manga that the Black Ranger is. Her brother takes part in a contest for something to help her. But she does get some more screen time in one the story arcs of the anime, even fighting one of the bad guys of that arc, despite her lack of knowledge in the challenge. This lack of experience causes the one of her fellow fighters to get knocked out in that contest, giving her confidence a major knock, but she recovers and ends up being the one to defeat the bad guy. Two of her brother's friends both argue about which of them her heart belongs to... But her personality is all sweetness and light, akin to a saint. She can be also be considered the "Lady of the Red", due to her brother's signature partner. A person who could be her twin is a like a fair-house mirror, showing a quite deadly dark side, despite looking like an angel...

Blue Ranger: He's a like force of nature in both name and deed. He's always slightly dis-respectful to those in charge and gives them nicknames as mark of affection. Has a major passion for a certain type of food. May seem like a clown or a fool, but has a hidden serious side to his nature. Can be quite observant when he wants to, but misses the obvious at times! Most people in his home hate him for something from his birth.

Yellow Ranger: Now this one is the hardest to choose. I've got two possible options for this one. The first one is a black belt in her Art. But she's still not strong enough to fight alongside her friends against their foes, but she never gives up, when battered and bloodied. Her friend awoke a great power, after she(the candidate) fell while trying to protect her. Option 2 is the granddaughter of two great heroes, one unsung and the other a fraud. While only a quarter of her blood is akin to that of the unsung hero, she takes great pride in that side of her nature. The unsung hero's greatest rival admired her grit and attitude to training in times of peace. If you can figure their identities out, could you vote for the one you want and a reason why? Or suggest another candidate…

The Sixth Ranger I won't reveal until closer to the time they're showing up, but they aren't from any of the above series.  
Thanks again for reading!


	2. Assembling the team, Part 1

I don't own any of the characters. They're all the copyright of their relevant creators. So, without further ado, on with the new chapter!

/

**Six months later…**

**(Hong Kong)**

A black-haired teenager wearing a duffle jacket, blue jeans and a white t-shirt ran on the side of a twenty storey building. When he came to a stone pillar, he spider climbed down to the first floor, barely touching the pillar to slow his descent. Just as he reached the bottom, he kicked off and went into a backwards roll. As he recovered from this, a man in a black suit tried to catch him. But he quickly dodged the attempt by jumping off a street bridge to ground level. More men in black suits jumped into the fray, trying to catch him. Performing a brief wall-run, then jumping over several obstacles in his path, the boy eluded every attempt at capture until he got out onto the main street, leaving the suits to slip up on something. These suits then disappeared in a puff of smoke… A pink haired, greened eyed girl ran up to meet him. He lifted her up and spun her around gently, before they closed in for a kiss…

"And cut!" a man sitting in a canvas boomed through his megaphone. "Where's G-man?" As the film crew, for that was what had been happening, rushed in to reapply make-up and ensure the scene was identical to how it was before the action was paused, the stuntman, for that was what he was, switched with someone who was dressed exactly the same, the main star. The director yelled: "And clear…" Everyone on the film crew who wasn't part of the scene then got out of the way of the camera. "And action!" The interrupted scene then played out, with the boy kissing his girl, as the camera pulled out and upwards. "That's a wrap folks!" As everyone rushed to congratulate the stars, several people shoved the stuntman roughly out of the way. He sighed and went over to the director. "Thanks kid! You did great… Here's your pay. Now don't go and spend it all in one place!" The stuntman smiled, until he opened the envelope and stared at what he was being paid. Before he could say anything, the star walked by him and knocked him off balance. The director grabbed him, brought him close and spoke to him in a harsh whisper: "Look kid, take it or leave it! But you know that I'm the only one who'll hire you, no questions asked…" He then let the stuntman go and walked over towards his star, already pitching his next big movie.

The stuntman then turned and walked back to his chair provided by the film company. On the outside he was calm and smiling, but he was seething on the inside: _'Well that's just typical! I did all that hard work and I got hardly anything… While all Mister Big-Shot over there had to do, was just say his lines while standing still and looking dark and mysterious, not to mention the kissing! But when all is said and done, he's the big star and I'm the nameless stuntman… I won't even get a mention in the credits, since both the studio and the actor himself have made the claim that he does all his own stunts! Yeah right, he wouldn't even be able to take a punch… I suppose it's for the best though, since that sleaze-bag of a director's right! I do need to keep off the radar for a while, this is the only work I could find and I get to do training, well sort of. But why does nearly every single girl I know go crazy over the whole dark, brooding avenger routine? And pink hair and a fan-girl, I can't believe I ever found that kind of girl attractive, Yuk!'_As he was thinking these thoughts, the stuntman pulled off his wig, revealing blonde spiky hair. His eyes flickered for an instant, turning from black to sky blue. When he got back to his chair, which was tiny compared to the others, he paused. The reason for this was an item that he was certain wasn't there before he started filming.

It was a strange, golden coloured device about the size of a small jewellery box. On the top of it, a symbol which looked like a compass was visible. _'What on earth? What's this thing! And who left it here?'_ the stuntman wondered as he picked the device up.

As he looked it over, it suddenly flipped open. A hologram of a well-dressed red-haired Japanese woman appeared and started to speak: "I'm quite a fan of all your work, Naruto Uzumaki… My name is Nodoka Saotome and I'm looking for some people to help me with a certain task! From what I gather, you seem to have just what I'm looking for… This message is pre-recorded so don't try to reply. But if you're interested, please meet me in one week at this address…"

The woman then gave an address that was somewhere outside of Tokyo over in Japan, but Naruto Uzumaki was only half listening, his mind racing through all his options. _'How in the world does she know my real name? I've been careful to use a fake name ever since I started travelling, about three years ago. And no-one on set here even bothered to find out anything about me, always calling me kid or stunt double! Could this be a trap for me? She seems honest enough, but then again, she could be a master of hiding her true emotions...' _He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then opened them again. _'Well, anything's better than sticking around here and being treated like a piece of dirt! Besides, I've been here too long…'_ And with that, he rushed off to collect his stuff and catch the first boat to Tokyo.

**(Karakura Town, Japan)**

"The winner and still the champion of Karakura Town, for a seventh year running: Tatsuki Arisawa!" As she accepted the trophy that signified her victory, Tatsuki took a look out over the cheering crowd to see if any of her close friends or family had showed up to cheer her on in this competition and her latest success, after they'd graduated school. Her joyful expression faltered a little as she finished looking: _'None of them showed up! Well, I suppose that shouldn't be a huge surprise, but it still is a bitter pill to take… Ichigo, Orihime and Chad at least have a good reason; at least I sure hope so! They've been acting so weird; I don't know what to think about them anymore… They've been acting like that for the past two years and it all started the very night that **'truck'**_ _crashed into the Kurosaki clinic. Which, now that I think about it, has got to be a lie, since I am certain I'd have heard something like that happening, or at the very least the sirens of the emergency services…? And to make things worse, I can't help them with whatever's been going on… It's ironic, I was always looking after Orihime for as long as I can remember but lately, it's been the other way round! I hate being so helpless to protect my friends…. But since I've no idea what's going on, I'd be doing more harm then help if I charge blindly in! Orihime's also been keeping secrets from me, which she's never done before. Even when her brother died, she was willing to talk things over with me… When did life get so complicated?'_ Tatsuki sighed, as she walked through the empty school halls.

'_At least the rest of Ichigo's family was here to provide some moral support for me! But I hoped that Mum and Dad would show up to see their only daughter in action, but they never showed… Guess they're off on yet another of their business trips again! Would it kill them, to take just one day off to cheer me on? Wait a minute, what's this thing and who put it in the trophy…'_ By this time, she'd gone into her private dressing room. The event organisers had assigned her the room, due to her being the defending champion. She put the trophy down and retrieved the object that had caught her eye from inside the trophy. It, on closer inspection, turned out to be a strange, golden coloured device about the size of a small jewellery box. On the top of it, a symbol which looked a bit like a compass was visible. _'Huh? I wonder what this thing is… More to the point, why was it placed in the trophy and who was it meant for?'_

As she fiddled about with the device, she found that the device could be opened like a glasses case. As soon she did so, a hologram of a woman dressed in a very formal looking kimono appeared and started talking: "Congratulations, Miss Arisawa … I knew you'd win, you always do! My name's Nodoka Saotome…" Tatsuki raised an eyebrow in surprise at the level of confidence this stranger had in Tatsuki's fighting skills. She had figured this message had been pre-recorded from the way there were no pauses for her to reply, or even ask a question. But Nodoka Saotome, if that was really her name, had been absolutely certain that it would be Tatsuki who was going to win the competition today. Part of her wanted to just throw it away, since it sounded a lot like a prank. But, since she'd already opened it, she thought she might as well listen to the whole message. It was a brief enough message; telling her that she'd been chosen for her skills. If she accepted or had any questions, she could meet Nodoka face to face in one week. The message ended with a set of directions to where the meeting would take place. Nodoka's surname, Saotome, also sounded very familiar to Tatsuki for some reason... But for the life of her, she just couldn't remember where!

'_Guess that answers some of my questions, like who was meant to receive this thing and why it was placed inside the trophy…'_ she mused. _'But it also raises more questions! Like how did she know that I was going to win today? Has she been spying on me and if so, for how long! Also, what exactly was she recruiting me for? This sounds like something out of a spy movie… And why do I feel that I should know that surname of hers from somewhere? But no matter,'_ she grinned in anticipation as she changed into her normal clothes and slipped the device into her pocket, _'I might as well meet her face to face … After all, this affair sounds like it could be very interesting and I can always leave if it turns out to be a waste of my time! Besides, if Orihime can have secrets of her own now, I can too…'_ With that, she left to pack her bags, while mentally preparing a message to give to Ichigo's family.

**(London, England)**

Deep inside the Bank of England, just above the main vault, a shadowy figure was working on the ventilation grill in the ceiling. A harsh whisper could be heard from the figure: "Hurry up for the love of Ra! The guards will be coming back in about quarter of an hour and we need to be long gone by then…" There was a moment's pause and then from the same mouth, a totally different voice came out: "Would you keep your hair on, I'm almost through!" This second voice was much kinder and gentler than the first one, but they were still surprisingly alike. A few seconds later the grill was lifted up into the ceiling alcove. Then the mystery person carefully lowered himself down into the vault on a suspension rig that was like something out of the first Mission Impossible movie… He was wearing a black stealth suit, over which he had a tactical deployment vest, with various pieces of gear that he'd found very useful in his thieving career. His face was hidden from view by a balaclava.

Inside the vault itself, the floor was crisscrossed with lasers at different heights and places, so that it would normally be impossible for anyone that was in the room unauthorised to pass through the room without tripping at least one laser. _'Too bad for the security staff here, they've never got a chance to put up some security around the internal vents! They did so for the outer vents… But their foolish superiors in management decided to cut a few corners on the rest of the building's security, just to save a few hundred pounds! Pounds that went into their own pockets… They're going to have a massive amount of egg on their faces tomorrow morning, that's for sure! That's when they're going to find out that all the valuable Corinthian Diamonds, which were placed under their protection for one day, while the museum was upgrading their own security systems, have vanished without a trace! And I'll have gotten a nice fee to prove that their security has gotten soft, just like the head of the bank has feared, not to mention a fee for the safe return of the diamonds… Who would have ever thought it a few years ago? Not only do I get to steal stuff legally, I also get paid for doing it!'_ While he was thinking this, the mystery person lowered himself towards his goal, a pyramid-shaped vault. It took a few seconds, but with the help of a programmable key-card connected to a hand-held computer, he was able to break the combination lock on the vault. It was then a simple matter to open it by spinning the vault handle… However, when the vault door opened, the vault was empty expect for a strange, golden coloured device about the size of a small jewellery box. On the top of it, a symbol which looked like a compass was clearly visible. "What's this?" As he was speaking this, he pulled off his balaclava to reveal white hair and brown eyes, which were narrowed in anger. "If this is someone's idea of a joke, I'm not laughing… Whoever hired me for a false job is going to find out I don't like having the wool pulled over my eyes!"

As he growled this part out, he opened the device in his hand. A hologram of a well-dressed, red-haired woman appeared and started to speak. "Nice job, Bakura! I asked a friend of mine to hire you to break into their vault in order to test your skills… You passed, with flying colours! I would like to offer you a job, that'll make use of your 'unique' talents. I've heard about your past actions and I don't care about them, just promise me that you'll be willing to make amends for them… I'll make it well worth your while; also I'll ensure that you get paid for this task too, since it's my fault that your time was taken up on this job! For more details on the job and some answers to any questions you may have, meet me at the following address in a week's time…"

She continued on, but Bakura wasn't fully paying attention to the message, but he committed the address to memory. _'So what do you think Ryo? Should we go to this meeting with this Nodoka character, she seems to have gone through a lot of trouble to hire us for this task of hers… Personally, I might just go along, see what the deal is! She has got a fair bit of guts, testing our skills in a manner like this… She certainly knows how to get a guy's full attention!'_

'_I agree 100 there with you Bakura… This Nodoka character must be something else, if she knows about our past deeds and doesn't judge us for them! She also seems to be quite well connected with a lot of business people, if what she said is true about how she got our attention… That may be useful for getting future jobs in our current line of work! After all, if people spread word of our daring exploits, it'll be the best type of advertising…'_the gentle voice, Ryo responded, nodding his ghostly head, as he floated in an astral form beside Bakura, while he waited to switch back with Bakura. This would be whenever they finally got out of the bank and they were about to meet their client. It had been quite a surprise for him to find that his dark half had survived the Shadow Game RPG he'd had with the spirit of Yugi's Millennium Puzzle before he'd left for the afterlife. It had been about two months after the Ceremonial Duel between Yugi and the Pharaoh Atem, his other half, almost two years ago. When Bakura had suddenly appeared to him again, Ryo had freaked out, whipping out warding charms, holy water and other items to ward off evil spirits!

But, much to Ryo's shock, Bakura had been much calmer and apologetic then Ryo had ever seen him before. He'd explained that he had been under the influence of Zorc for several thousand years, up until the Pharaoh Atem had destroyed Zorc in the Shadow Game RPG. He'd had expected to die along with Zorc due to his soul being bound to Zorc's soul, but since he had managed to develop a stronger bond to Ryo's own soul, he'd somehow managed to survive the destruction of his connection to Zorc. This meant that the two of them were stuck together! They would only be separated for good whenever Ryo himself finally died.

Bakura had then explained that he'd offered up his own life to Zorc, so that he could take revenge on the Pharaoh and his protectors for the crime Atem's father had committed against him and his family. It had all started with Akhenamkhanen's order to his brother to create the Millennium Items… This had been done to protect Egypt from an invading army five thousand years ago. What Akhenamkhanen hadn't realized and what his brother Akhenaden had neglected to tell him until much later when it was too late to rescind the order, was that it required 99 human sacrifices to actually make the Items! The people that had lived in Kul Elna had been the unlucky people selected for this task. Bakura had been the only survivor of that massacre, and had sworn to get revenge for what the Pharaoh's men had done, no matter what the cost was… It had then been an easy matter for Zorc to ensnare Bakura's soul, with the offer of helping him to get revenge, in exchange for his eternal servitude. When Ryo had heard this story; he just couldn't stay mad at Bakura, seeing just how alike they were, after all they had both lost people that were close to them…

It had been Bakura's idea in the first place to go into the professional _**"security tester"**_ market. He had made the point that it would be the best way to use his old thieving skills legally, while ensuring he didn't get bored. Ryo was unsure, but he eventually agreed to the idea, knowing whenever Bakura got bored, he would play some very degrading pranks on people! Ryo figured that training for this new challenge would help to occupy Bakura's free time. Over the following months, Bakura had then taught Ryo all of his thieving skills that he thought were still useful in this day and age. While this was going on, they had also familiarised themselves with the more modern pieces of technology that were used in this line of work. Much to Ryo's great surprise, he had found that he actually enjoyed learning the skills Bakura had to teach him… By the time he had graduated from school last year, he'd learned everything that Bakura had wanted to teach him. They both actually made a very good team together, with Ryo talking to the clients, negotiating the payment for the jobs they took and infiltrating the target locations. Then he swapped with Bakura, who dealt with the actual retrieval of the items they were hired to get, while Ryo noted the weaknesses that the security systems surrounding the items had… Once they had gotten out safely with the items, he switched back, leaving Ryo to hand over the items to their client and report on just where security could be tightened up. _'Right then Bakura, let's get going… We've got to deliver our report to our client and then we've got to catch a plane back to Japan!'_

'_Not a problem, Ryo… I'll just leave our calling card and we're all set!'_ With that, Bakura placed a card with the symbol of the Eye of Horus on it into the vault, closed the door and locked the vault up again. He then pressed a button on his rig which hauled him back up into the open ceiling vent, which he quickly replaced; leaving the room looking as if no-one had been in it.

**(San Francisco University, USA)**

"Watch out! The robot's going crazy… I knew it wasn't ready yet and said as much, but did Professor Hawkins listen to me? Noooo…" a nameless student yelled as everyone in the room was diving for cover, trying to avoid getting hit by the machine. The robot, a simple arm like those you'd see in a car factory with a low strength laser attached to it, was spinning around like a spinning top and opening fire seemingly at random intervals. To make matters that much worse, there was hardly any cover in the room between the laptop that controlled the robot and the robot itself. If anyone was going to try and deactivate the robot, they would be putting themselves in great danger! There was just no way to predict when and where the laser would fire next, so there was a very good chance of it hitting the person trying to shut the robot down. The professor who had turned on the robot in the first place was out cold, lying on the ground by the laptop, a clear example of how dangerous things were. Just at that very moment, a young woman walked into the room, took a quick glance at the very chaotic situation before her and then started walking towards the laptop in a calm, controlled manner… Some of the people tried to stop her, but their friends put a hand out to stop them, saying: "Leave her be… She knows exactly what she's doing!"

The girl was dressed in a simple practical outfit, consisting of a pink jacket, white t-shirt and a pink skirt that went down to her knees. Her long brown hair flowed behind her, as she avoided a blast from the robot's laser simply by moving her head just a fraction of an inch to one side, with the blast not even touching her hair! She got to the computer without any trouble and started to type away, ignoring the blasts flying all over the room. After a few seconds, the robot started to shut down, but not before discharging one final blast just above her head. She grinned and then turned to the professor, who had just come around and was staggering to his feet, extending her hand towards him. "Professor Hawkins, next time you want to mess around with the students' science projects, please don't! Or at the very least, you should wait for either me or Rebecca to be there with you, so you don't cause an accident… After all, your skills are more to do with ancient history and dead languages than advanced robotics." Her voice was firm but gentle, like a mother explaining to a young child what they did was wrong. Her brown eyes, however, flashed with a minor hint of amusement.

"Sorry about making that mess, Serenity! I thought I knew what I was doing, after all I've been learning quite a bit about computers from my grand-daughter and you… Guess I still have a bit more to learn! Good thing that laser blast only winged me, but still, I should probably get myself checked out by the campus nurse for any injuries." The professor replied kindly in a low voice that only Serenity could hear, before wincing slightly as he went back over to the table to support his weight. He raised his voice so the whole room could hear: "Right, I think we can call it a day then… Anyone who thinks they were hurt during that mess; can come with me to the nurse's office. The rest of you, take the rest of the day off, you've earned it!" Everyone started to pick up their bags and head off to the beach or whatever else they had in mind. Serenity was about to follow them, but Professor Hawkins gently put his hand on her shoulder: "Just to let you know Serenity, you received a package early this morning… I had it put into your office! I didn't get a chance to mention it sooner since we were so busy with marking the final year robotic projects."

"Thank you Professor Hawkins, for letting me know about that package... I'll go and collect it right now. If I see Rebecca, I'll let her know what happened and tell her not to be too hard on you!" Serenity replied. She left the room after grabbing her bag. As she walked down the college hallways, she tried to ignore all the hushed whispers and harsh glares that she was getting from some of the students from the other classes that she didn't have regular teaching contact with. Most of these were to do with the fact that she was only just 17 years old, but had already completed her degree and teaching people nearly twice her age. Some of the more malicious people had even claimed that she'd preformed certain **'favours'** to get her current position with the college. _'I know that I seem too young to be a graduate, let alone a teacher, but I've actually worked quite hard to get where I am today!'_ she growled to herself. When she heard the growl she had let out, she froze and took a quick look around to see if anyone else had heard it. Fortunately, she was near her office and most people here were going about their own business. Moving quickly, she quickly entered her office and locked the door behind her. The writing on the door window read "Assistant Lecturer: Serenity Wheeler".

Inside the office, Serenity flopped into her seat behind her desk. Her desk was fairly tidy, with just a few picture frames which held photos of her brother Joey and his girlfriend Mai celebrating both her graduation and the victory that both Mai and Joey, working together, had achieved in the American tag-team Duel Monsters tournament. She let out a heavy sigh: _'Not again! What's been happening to me lately? I've been losing my temper really easily when it comes to certain things… I wish I could talk to Mai or Joey about it, but they're busy with defending their title and won't be back for at least a month. Things have been very strained between mom and me recently, so she's out! Besides, she's back in Japan, so that's another reason not to bother her. As for Rebecca or Professor Hawkins, I don't want to worry them…'_ She shook her head, wondering what these lapses in her self-control could mean and wishing she could talk to some-one about it, but her dark mood was lifted when she spotted the package Professor Hawkins had told her about. It was a small enough parcel, slightly bigger than a glasses case… _'There's no return address, but it seems safe enough if it got through all the security checks that the college has implemented! Might as well open it and see what I've got here…'_Serenity thought, as she un-wrapped the parcel. What she found inside was a strange, golden coloured device about the size of a small jewellery box. On the top of it, a symbol which looked like a compass was clearly visible. _'What's this thing? It's not my birthday and even if it was, I'd have gotten a card or something with it from the sender!'_ Serenity thought as she looked it over.

As she was fiddling with the device, she opened it up. As soon as she had done this, a hologram of a red-haired woman dressed in a formal kimono appeared. She started to speak what was clearly a pre-recorded message: "Hello there Serenity, I've read your papers on advanced bionic limbs and I have to say, I was impressed! I know you're probably wondering what this is about, so I'll get to the point… My name is Nodoka Saotome and I would like to offer you a job, one that'll require your special talents! If you wish to find out more or have accepted the job, meet me at the following address in one week's time…" She then listed a Japanese address. When Serenity looked it up in her atlas, she found that it was a few kilometres outside of Tokyo. She sat back in her seat and then started to mull all her possible options over.

'_Well this sounds interesting; she seems too serious for it to be a prank… But then again, she could be a professional actor for one of those Candid Camera shows! But I think I'll play along with it, I need a break from this job anyway…'_With that, she booted up her office computer and started to compose two e-mails: one to her brother telling him that she was possibly going to be working back in Japan for an indefinite length of time, the other one was to her supervisor asking for a leave of absence for about a year. As she was doing this, she mused on the many possible reasons for her being hired by Nodoka before coming to the conclusion: _'Whatever this Nodoka character wants to hire me for, if she's right, I get the feeling that it's something big!'_

/

Well, what do you think? Good, bad or alright? Just to let people know, I was planning on each ranger having something a little _'different'_ about them all(and I mean ALL), with each of them getting something unique... If you've got any ideas for what powers(remember Ronny's speed and things like that, if you want something different) or secrets you want them to have, let me know... I won't say what ideas I'm using until I reveal them! If you wish to PM me them, feel free to do so!


	3. Assembling the team, Part 2

I don't own the rights to any of the songs or characters depicted in this story...

--

"Where's that blasted baka, Nabiki? I haven't seen or heard a thing from him since we arrived at school this morning… He hasn't been this late home in six months, and we've still got a month left in school before the end of summer term. And why are 'they' here, I didn't invite either of them and I'm fairly sure no-one else in this house would dare to do so!" Akane growled out as she flexed her hands, limbering up for a fight. She was itching to get her hands on Ranma and get an answer out of him about his recent odd behaviour, one way or another. She turned her glare over to where Cologne, Shampoo and Ukyo were standing. The three had shown up an hour after school, hoping to speak to everyone, including Ranma. They had claimed that they were there to try and apologize for their actions during the wedding fiasco. Akane hadn't believed a word of it, though…

"Actually, I haven't seen him since this morning myself… As for why they're here, I've no idea!" Nabiki replied. Truth be told, she was actually a little nervous. Ranma had discovered that Nabiki had not only started up her business of selling cheesecake photos of him again, but had gotten some fresh samples of his cursed form in even more risqué poses then ever before. His response had been totally unexpected: he had grabbed her and dragged her off to one side, not even giving her a chance to speak. His voice had been low, but the annoyance in his tone had been unmistakable. The message had been brief and to the point: he had enough of being used to make a quick yen without his express permission. If she kept it up, she'd find out what it was like to be on the receiving end of her kind of photo sessions, with no respect for her own privacy! Also, if she got into trouble with anyone else due to her own actions, she shouldn't expect him to watch her back anymore! _'I wonder why he said I had to watch my own back from now on…? He's not the type to attack those who can't defend themselves… And besides, no-one would dare mess with some of my tough new co-workers to try and get to me!'_ Covering up her brief attack of nerves, she decided to try and get to the bottom of this mess… "So Ukyo, did you hear anything about what Ranma was doing during school and where he might be now?"

"Well, from what I heard from your new rumour mill at school, Ranma went to the vice-principal's office a little bit after lunchtime and asked if he'd be allowed to take the graduation test, without ANY interruptions… Since Principal Kuno had gone off early to plan yet another of his crazy schemes for keeping us students in line, the vice-principal had no problem with processing Ranma's request." Ukyo replied warily, while she kept a close eye on Akane's movements. She knew that Akane had really developed a much shorter temper lately, even with her closest friends… Nabiki, on the other hand, was still up to her usual scams. This time though, she had teamed up with other people that were also willing to do shady deals from all the other classes. It had been one of her smarter moves: each person was able to gather blackmail material from their local area and classes. This meant their information gathering skills were much more effective than if they were working on their own, which led to greater profits for all involved... However, some of Nabiki's new group were even greedier than her and a lot less scrupulous with how they made money! And if any of them ever got the bright idea to try and take control of the group… Shaking those chilling thoughts off, Ukyo continued: "As things turned out, he's managed to graduate from Furinkan now and he did it with flying colours I might add!" Unfortunately for Akane, she had chosen this precise moment to take a drink of water. At this shocking piece of news, she started to cough and splutter, as the water went down the wrong way. When she had eventually recovered, she shot a look towards Ukyo that clearly screamed **_'Yeah right! The baka could never pull something like that off…'_** Ignoring the look, Ukyo continued: "Whether you believe it or not Akane, that's what really happened. After that, he waited around just long enough to find out what his results were and ensure they were entered into the Board of Education's database properly. He then cleaned out his locker and left. I don't know where he went from there though."

"Ah yes, I was wondering why he was carrying his school bag when he arrived to his fight against Happosai for him to be given the right to teach Anything Goes…" Cologne chose this moment to speak up, seeing that Ukyo was finished talking. "I'm just surprised he was willing to wait so long before he threw down the gauntlet. After all he has had the skills to do so since after Jusendo. After all no Amazon, either male or female, had ever even scratched Saffron before… But Ranma not only hurt him, he forced him back into his new-born state!" She broke off there as the memories of the battle as reported by Ryoga came back to her, leaving an uncomfortable silence in the air. Everyone present in the room knew first-hand or had learnt just how badly traumatised Ranma had been by the whole Jusendo affair, both at the fact he'd nearly lost Akane for good and the fact that he'd actually killed a sentient creature in cold blood for the first time to save her. Sure, there had been a few times when he had tried to kill other people in the heat of the moment, Herb for example, but this was the first time he'd ever actually achieved it. Even though Saffron had regenerated into an egg, for a few minutes he'd been clinically dead… Ranma's entire personality had really changed, which had been obvious to most of the group on the return trip to Nerima. He'd become a lot more serious and thoughtful, while not eating as much or sleeping well. A little bit before the failed wedding though, he seemed to be getting back to his normal, cheerful, personality. After the whole fiasco though, he had gone back to his serious side and that had been the case for the last six months. Shaking her head, Cologne continued: "But I guess he wanted both Happosai and himself to be at 100... Well, whatever his reasons were, he's done it! Ranma is now a certified master of Anything Goes…"

"WHAT!" Nabiki shouted, her eyes going wide in shock at this latest bombshell, which was way bigger than Ranma graduating early. After all, even if he had passed all his tests, both Miss Hinako and the principal just wouldn't accept it! They'd claim he'd cheated somehow. If she placed her guess right, and by this time she had gotten a fairly good idea of how most of the regulars in Nerima would react to almost any situation in the area, they'd be chasing after him to force him to return to school. She did know Ranma wouldn't make it easy for them though! But if he had beaten Happosai and gained the Master ranking in Anything Goes; that would completely shift the balance of power in the local area. "He fought and beat Happosai… No way! Where exactly did this happen," she asked Cologne with great reverence, knowing it was best to stay on Cologne's good side for now.

On the inside though, her Ice Queen side was snarling in rage: _'I can't freaking believe this; I only just started accepting bets on his fights again, not to mention selling photos of both halves! And already he's thrown my new system into total chaos… The fact he's now the new Grandmaster of Anything Goes means that only Kuno, Kodachi or even Akane will bother to keep trying to fight him. Anyone else will think twice before trying to fight him, or at least train for ages between bouts… Sure, I'll make big money on the rare occasions he fights, but that won't be enough to tide over the other members of the group! They're more used to the quick money-making schemes, like I used to be before I came up with this new plan… After all, I learnt the truth: if I ever want to actually get somewhere with my dreams, I have to learn to plan for the long haul, not just the quick con! On reflection though, I shouldn't have accepted those long-shot bets that he would beat Happosai so soon. But like an idiot, I thought it would never happen, or that I'd at least have made enough money to cover the loss whenever it finally happened. Ranma's going to owe me big time for all the money he's just cost my group!_'

At that moment, her dormant conscience chose that moment to speak up. Ever since her mother's death, it had only surfaced very briefly for a few moments at a time. _'He owes you? Yeah right! You're actually the one that OWES him big time, you know! You've made his life here over the past two years nothing sort of hell… For example, remember the whole wedding mess? That was your fault! You just had to go and ruin Akane's special day, didn't you? And don't you think this idea to team-up with all the other con-artists is just asking for trouble…? They will turn on you in an instant, if they're given half a chance, or if they see a moment of weakness from you!'_

_'Quiet you! You've no idea what you're talking about… I'm not the only cause of Ranma's problems. Sure I gave out the invites to all the rivals for the wedding! But they were the ones who over-reacted to the news; I didn't do anything to make them do what they did… Besides, Akane has managed to ruin her own chances with Ranma just fine without my help! As for working with the other con artists, I've taken a few **"precautions"** to ensure they won't double-cross me!_' Nabiki retorted heatedly to her conscience. Sure, she had briefly felt a small pang of doubt about telling the other girls, but she had then shrugged it off. After all, she had convinced herself, if Ranma and Akane had truly cared for each other they'd have gotten through this mess… Just like they had managed to do all the other times in the past! But this time, Akane had gone and let her paranoid imagination run totally out of control, totally wrecking any headway that she and Ranma had made in the romance or friendship department over the past two years.

"Why, in the public park, Nabiki… It certainly drew quite a crowd to watch it. I should know, since Ranma asked me to be the referee for it last week!" Cologne replied calmly, while mentally chuckling at the way Nabiki twitched just then, clearly miffed at the thought of all the profits she'd just lost due to this upset. She then composed herself and continued to speak, "It was over well before it really got going though, so it wasn't very exciting for the spectators… Ranma really went for the quick win. Happosai didn't even get a chance to use any of his special techniques before Ranma scored the point every time! That's what had been agreed by all the parties involved, first to ten points would claim the Grandmaster title, with the points scored by trapping their opponent in a position they were unable to get out of… At first Happosai was totally shocked that he'd lost to Ranma so quickly. But he then laughed and congratulated Ranma on a well-earned victory! What really surprised me was the fact that Happosai had been expecting him to win, if not so quickly… He'd even given Ranma a valid certificate which recognizes Ranma's new status as a teacher of Anything Goes that Happosai had signed several weeks back! After that, Ranma just left, only saying that he was heading home… You won't have to worry about Happosai hanging around here or causing any trouble for a while though, he's gone off to Hawaii for the Miss Universe contest and won't be back for at least two months. He's been looking forward to that for three months now, but he was not sure if he would be able to make it..."

Just then, Kasumi brought the radio in from the garden back to the kitchen, where she'd been listening to it while washing the windows of the house and dojo. As she put the radio back onto the windowsill while she was putting away everything, the song that had been playing finished up. After a brief ad break, the music program she was listening to started up again with the DJ accepting another phone call: uHi there caller, you're on the air! What's your message and song request?"

There was a brief moment of silence before the caller spoke. His voice was a little more strained then anyone had ever heard it before, but it was clearly Ranma's voice. Everyone just froze, not quite believing their ears. "Hi there guys, Ranma here! Just to let you know, I'm going to heading over to mom's house for a while… It's not that I'm dropping all the agreements that people have forced on me just yet, but I think we all just need some distance from these arrangements to figure out the best way to resolve them all to make everyone happy! So, it's goodbye for the moment… Depending on how it takes, I might be back again towards the end of the summer, maybe later. It'll all depend on what we can come up with! As for the song I want, I choose one of U2's songs: preferably 'Stuck in a moment' please?"

"No problem there, thanks for calling and good luck with solving those problems! Well, you heard the man, here's U2 with Stuck in a moment," the DJ replied, his voice fading out as the song started:

I'm not afraid, of anything in this world

There's nothing you can throw at me

That I haven't already heard

I'm just trying to find

A decent melody

A song that I can sing

In my own company

I never thought you were a fool

But darling look at you

You gotta stand up straight

Carry your own weight

These tears are going nowhere baby

You've got to get yourself together

You've got stuck in a moment

And now you can't get out of it

Don't say that later will be better

Now you're stuck in a moment

And you can't get out of it

I will not forsake

The colors that you bring

The nights you filled with fireworks

They left you with nothing

I am still enchanted

By the light you brought to me

I listen through your ears

Through your eyes I can see

And you are such a fool

To worry like you do

I know it's tough

And you can never get enough

Of what you don't really need now

My, oh my

You've got to get yourself together

You've got stuck in a moment

And you can't get out of it

Oh love, look at you now

You've got yourself stuck in a moment

And you can't get out of it

I was unconscious, half asleep

The water is warm 'til you

discover how deep

I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall

It's a long way down to nothing at all

You've got to get yourself together

You've got stuck in a moment

And you can't get out of it

Don't say that later will be better

Now you're stuck in a moment

And you can't get out of it

And if the night runs over

And if the day won't last

And if our way should falter

Along the stony pass

It's just a moment

This time will pass…

As the song ended, there were a few moments of silence as everyone present in the room took in both Ranma's message and the song he'd chosen to say goodbye with. The silence was finally broken by a loud **CRACK**! Everyone turned to the source: it was Akane, who had been gripping the edge of the table so hard due to her rage; she'd broken off the edge nearest to her. When she spoke, it was surprisingly calm, but the level of venom and underlying anger was unmistakable.

"That BAKA has some nerve! He just left us and didn't even have the guts to tell us to our faces. What a coward, running away like this... If anyone needs me, I'll be in the dojo, practising like a REAL martial artist is supposed to!" With that, she stormed out of the room. No-one tried to stop her, seeing as she was radiating a truly massive amount of anger, making her aura visible to the naked eye. After a few seconds of thought, Genma dashed off without saying a word to anyone. Everyone in the room knew he was heading over the Saotome family home, assuming that was where Ranma was headed. Finally, Kasumi spoke up. Her voice was calm but slightly frosty, which surprised the visitors, none of whom had been around to the Tendo house since the wedding fiasco. Before, even in the direst of situations, her voice was normally kind and gentle.

"I'm sorry Honoured Elder, but you'll have to leave now… I'll be getting dinner ready before Akane cools down and since your reason for your visit is done with, I see no reason for you to stay today! That goes for both Shampoo and Ukyo too… I don't think my sister will appreciate you hanging around for longer then you need to, even if you are trying to be nice..." With that final statemment, Kasumi got up and showed them out. Looking between each other in confusion over Kasumi's personality shift, they then shrugged and started to walk back to their homes. Before they got too far though, they heard someone calling out to them.

"Just a moment, Elder Kun Long, could we talk for a moment…" Cologne paused and turned around, seeing and hearing Soun call out to her while walking towards her. Seeing both Ukyo and her grand-daughter pause, unsure of what they should do, she waved them on and told Shampoo to take the rest of the day off to spend however she wished… She smiled as they walked off together towards Ukyo's shop, while having a friendly conversation thanks to having finally buried the hatchet a few weeks back; she then turned her attention back to Soun as he caught up.

"You wish to speak to me Soun Tendo… Is it about Son-, I mean Ranma's message to us or is there something else you wish to talk about?" Cologne spoke politely to him, but she was reeling on the inside. Soun had sounded so formal towards her and he was wearing a serious expression. Most of the times they'd talked to each other in the past, they had been at loggerheads, with neither of the two sides willing to concede that the other person might have a point. They also never entered into casual conversation. But this time seemed to be different… She wondered just what had changed Soun's mind about her, before he started to talk.

"It's a little of both, Honoured Elder." Soun replied, grateful that Cologne had taken the time to consider his statements, given their track record. "While we might not have always seen eye to eye in the past, I feel that now is a good time to try and start afresh and become friends. Firstly, Ranma's choice of song to say goodbye was quite appropriate: All of the people that Ranma knows here have gotten into a very self-destructive rut with regard to all the events that surrounded him. What most of them don't know is that Ranma actually kept the actual chaos level in check. Sure, he may have added quite a bit to the chaos himself, but for the most part he resolved more problems than he created! With him gone, all the other factors that cause chaos around here will have free rein to wreak havoc. And since Ranma won't be around to stop it, things will keep getting worse, despite what some people might think!

As for the other reason I have is this: lately I've been getting the feeling that Genma's been hiding something major from me. I'm not sure what it is, but I think it's why he's been so determined to marry Ranma off to Akane before they're both eighteen years old. I know we've both attempted to marry them in the past, but for this last attempt it seemed that Genma was trying every trick in the book to ensure they'd say 'I do!' without anyone stopping the proceedings. Fortunately, I suppose, things didn't go according to plan. Who knows how things would have worked out?

It was a few days before the failed wedding attempt, while Ranma was still on his way home from the battle with Saffron with Akane, you and everyone else that'd gone with him, that things got odd. Genma got an official-looking letter from somewhere while we were the only two in the house. He took one look at the envelope, froze and then dashed off, saying he had a very important appointment to take care of… He took the letter with him, not even bothering to open it. When he got back, without the letter I might add, he didn't even bother to explain what this appointment of his had been about… He just simply suggested that since both Ranma and Akane seemed to be getting on so well, according to your phone-call before departing Hon Kong, we should prepare to join the schools and start planning a marriage. He'd already talked to Nodoka about it and she had approved of his plan, since he'd claimed that both Akane and Ranma seemed to want to marry ASAP. When I started to voice my concerns that we were moving too fast without ensuring our facts were straight, he waved it off, saying that it was obvious that our children were in love with each other.

But he was wrong… He's been wrong about everything ever since he showed up here two years ago. But this time, it was a step too far… It's been the first time that both the fiancées and rivals have ever used lethal force to try and either claim the people they've lusted after or remove a rival for the those same people! Thank Kami that most of those involved have calmed down and are sorry for their actions. But the damage to my children's relationships was far too high: two of my daughters now have developed a strong dislike for Ranma; while the other only sees him as a business acquaintance. I can also see my youngest has lost her trust in both of her sisters and almost everyone around her. But it's not Ranma's fault at all! Things just got a little out of hand in the heat of the moment. It's just too bad that Akane has let her pride blind her to this fact! She also needs to learn the need for some self-control to truly reach her maximum potential… Besides, if we pool all our resources together, we can expand on what we already know in the field of martial arts and try to make an improved school of martial arts that we can both be proud of. So what do you say Honoured Elder, do we have a truce?"

Cologne nodded, as she mulled over what Soun had said. It was true that Akane had a lot of potential in quite a few areas, including martial arts. Her main weakness though, both in training and everyday things, was a simple lack of patience and quite a bit of arrogance. She just refused to take things slowly and carefully, always claiming that she was every bit as good as Ranma. The only problem was Ranma had a highly advanced learning curve for most marital arts and was also able to break all the moves he saw down for only the most relevant details instead of being dazzled by the flashy flourishes that some of his opponents added to their moves to both wow people and make the moves harder to copy. Once he had done this, he'd experiment with the move until he had it down or figured out a way to make it work for him. This was the true reason why Ranma could learn a move after only seeing it done a few times. Akane, on the other hand, was always trying to re-create the move exactly as she saw it without taking a look at the individual steps that made up the move.

However, the price Ranma paid for this ability to learn fighting moves with ease was a total lack of social tact on his part. He just couldn't pretend to like something to save a person's feelings, no matter how hard he tried. This was the cause of quite a few the beatings he'd received from Akane when he'd refused to eat her cooking or pointed out her flaws a little too bluntly. From the way Akane would describe him at times, you'd think he was nothing but a cocky jerk that didn't care for anyone but himself and was always blowing his trumpet about how good he was at martial arts. But anyone who actually met Ranma and also bothered to get to know him better would see the truth: he was just a shy, insecure person who's only vice was his pride in his fighting skills. But that was understandable really; his skills were one of the few things that were truly unique to him and him alone.

Genma's actions though, were most peculiar... She had a few theories about this, but nothing solid. Until then it would be best to wait and gather more information… And to do that, she would have to work with Soun. This made a lot of sense: since Soun was still trusted by Genma for most things, he might eventually confide to Soun the truth of what his private meeting was really about. Besides, he had made a very good point about expanding the village's range of martial arts skills and gaining more allies to help protect its way of life. "Alright then Soun Tendo, we have an agreement! I was already planning on getting permission from the other Elders to make the Cat Café a full-time outpost here in Japan to let members of the village see what life is like outside the village walls. Your point about sharing knowledge was also a valid one. If you would kindly help me out with getting planning permission to both extend and renovate the Cat Cafe, I'll see if I can get permission for both you and any of your future students to learn some of the Amazon's special techniques. Akane, I'm afraid, will have to prove that she has the self-control not to use whatever we teach her for selfish purposes."

"That's fair enough, Honoured Elder. In fact, I was going to have that be the case. She's just not ready yet for those techniques…" Soun replied, nodding his head in agreement. "First things first, I need to see where my skill level is at now; after all, I haven't trained properly in several years! I think I will probably need to get back into proper fighting form before I can learn the more complicated moves… So until tomorrow or whenever you actually want to meet me, goodbye..."

"True enough. That's a good plan of action you have there… Tomorrow sounds fine, see you at four at the Cat Café," Cologne replied. Mentally, her new-found respect for Soun increased: _'Nice to see that he's at least willing to admit the fact he has room for improvement.'_ After Soun had walked off in the direction of his house, she sighed and looked up to the heavens: _'Well Ranma, I'm sorry for me and Xian Pu causing you so many headaches over the past two years! I wish you the best of luck, wherever you are now…'_

**_(At the same moment, on the other side of town…)_**

Ranma sneezed again, the third or fourth time in as many minutes, while he checked to ensure no-one was tailing him as he got off the bus. He had planned this course of action out for the past month, but after having several plans of his get messed up in the past, he had learned never to think a plan was totally fool-proof until after it was finished. But so far, it was all going like clockwork!

He'd passed all his tests to graduate early with flying colours, thanks to spending most of his recent free time studying the subject matter. He was quite pleasantly surprised that he'd actually passed with such a comfortable margin, given his past difficulties with written exams. Now he wouldn't have to deal with Miss Hinako constantly trying to drain his Ki, even though he'd been actually paying full attention in class for this term. She just kept assuming that he was planning some sort of delinquent activity and was biding his time. _'Well, that's to be expected, I suppose… Especially given the fact that Principal Kuno exaggerated how bad I was behaving and that first impression I gave her!'_ Ranma winced at that memory, remembering just how stupidly he had acted in the past, before sighing softly. _'Well, what's done is done and there's no point to think about what might have been!'_ And since the vice-principal had entered the data into the board of education's database, if either Miss Hinako or Principal Kuno wanted to challenge the results, they would have a lot of red tape to deal with, giving him enough time to prepare…

Fighting Happosai to gain the right to teach Anything Goes was a late addition to the plan, only added three weeks ago. His reasoning for this was simple: it would reduce the amount of people chasing after him by at least one person. Another benefit of having the title of master of Anything Goes was the fact that Genma wouldn't be able to pull rank on him anymore… The only thing that had been completely spur of the moment in the plan had been the phone call from a payphone to the local radio station in Nerima after he'd gotten off the bus and was walking the rest of the way to his mother's house. He then shrugged and continued walking along.

_'Oh well, I was going to have to let everyone know I'd gone to spend some time with my mother sooner or later,_' he rationalized. _'It was probably best to do it now, before they tore up the town up looking for me! Fortunately, they'll all be expecting to find me at the old Saotome family house over in Azabu Jûban… None of them have realized Mom actually has gone and bought a new house on the outskirts of Tokyo, after the girls trashed the old one. She only moved in temporarily with the Tendos because she had to wait until all the rooms were ready and she also wanted to spend some time catching up with me… Since they are probably expecting me to head over to the old house, it's a simple matter of actually travelling in the opposite direction! Good thing she told me about this and gave me her new address before I got out of the hospital six months ago, otherwise I'd have gone straight to the old house and gotten caught by everyone else before I'd even had a chance to search elsewhere… This way, I can vanish without leaving an easy trail for them to follow. There are still a few traces of my trail, but only those with a lot of patience will find them. And since most of the others are much too impulsive when it comes to me, I should be okay until the trail goes cold. I also know that they'll be focusing their search for me over towards the Jûban side of Tokyo, so that means more time for the trail to cool off.'_

As he came up to the house, he let out a low whistle at what he saw. _'That's not a house; it's more like a mansion! I didn't think mom was as wealthy as this! Guess that her job paid really well...'_ The mansion, for that was the only word he could think of that could describe the property properly, was much larger then the original family home. For starters, it was three storeys high, with a modern American style exterior which was painted white. Ranma went up to the door and was about to knock when he noticed it was slightly ajar and there were some muffled sounds coming from inside. Ranma tensed slightly and entered cautiously, his senses in high alert.

"Does anyone have a clue why we're here? How about you Bakura… Got any info on this Nodoka lady? After all, she seems like the type of person you'd be working for in your line of work." A timid voice, obviously female and the source of the sounds, seemed to be coming from the double doors at the end of the hall. Ranma walked towards it, but paused outside it, deciding to listen for a few seconds. He had learnt back in Nerima, to never enter any situation unless he had a clear picture of it, the hard way.

"Well Serenity, this Nodoka character could be some wacky rich person! She asked a friend of hers to hire me to break into their bank vault in London, just to test my skills in gaining access to things I'm not supposed to! It was definitely one of my more unusual tasks in the security testing market so far…" a male voice now spoke up, followed by the sound of a snooker cue hitting a ball. This voice was friendly enough, but Ranma was a little annoyed that the person thought his mum was a bit eccentric, although she could give that impression at times. But the fact that she'd asked a friend to test his skill in breaking and entering, even if it was legal, raised a few questions… _'Huh, why on earth would mum be looking for someone with skills like that? I'll have to ask her about it when I see her…'_

"Me neither! I got an invitation, so I decided to show up… After all, she must have her reasons. Just one thing is bugging me, I just get the feeling I should know her surname from somewhere!" another female voice replied. This voice was also female, but she seemed to be a lot more confident then Serenity was, maybe even a little too confident. "I know that it's on the edge of my mind, but I just can't seem to connect the dots!"

Ranma now chose this moment to enter the room, having heard enough and deciding to meet these people face to face. He put on his most friendly face, opened the door and said: "Hi guys, what's going on here?" As he entered, he looked over the four occupants of the room as they turned to see him. The group consisted of two males and two females. The first person he looked at was a white-haired teenager with chocolate brown eyes who appeared to be about the same age as Nabiki or slightly older. From his position near the pool table, Ranma figured he was Bakura, given the sounds Ranma had heard during his conversation. He was playing a game of pool against a brown-haired girl, who was more then likely Serenity, especially since they seemed to know each other and were now talking about some kind of card game called Duel Monsters. Serenity herself was actually a quite cute girl, with her long, brown hair, sparkling brown eyes and a well toned... Ranma caught himself there before his mind could finish that statement and gave himself a mental shake: _'Hold it right there buster! Remember what happened in the past whenever you thought some girl was cute, it always ended up with her chasing you for one reason or another… Besides, knowing your luck, she's got an overprotective brother.'_

The final two members of the group were located at opposite ends of the room. Miss confidence herself was standing near the pool table, watching Serenity and Bakura play. She was a little shorter then he was, but she had a no-nonsense aura about her. Her hair was a dark shade of black, as were her eyes. The expression on her face was a bit of a grimace, as she seemed to be trying to be racking her brains, trying to find an answer to just how she knew the Saotome name from somewhere. Ranma could sympathise, having worn the same kind of expression himself while trying to figure out a way to resolve all the arrangements that he had hanging over him in a way that left everyone happy… The final member of the group was also the youngest looking. He was a blond spiky haired, blue eyed kid with six thin whisker marks on his face, three to each side. At the moment Ranma entered, he seemed to looking over some old pottery that was locked up in a cupboard, wearing a serious expression on his face that didn't feel natural on him. Everyone looked up as they heard him enter and called out a greeting, each of them shifting into a defensive posture, before relaxing as they saw he wasn't a threat.

The black-haired girl was the first to speak to him: "Come on in, join the party…" From her voice, Ranma identified her as the girl who had said they'd received an invite and decided to show up. The way she carried herself with a fair amount of self-assured confidence implied she was a martial artist like him. The faint traces of bruising on her hands and palms indicated she'd put in quite a bit of varied practise (unlike Akane, who focused on just basic punches and kicks) and was quite possibly at one of the higher levels of skill in her art, if not the highest. She continued on: "The name's Tatsuki Arisawa! We each got a message from Mrs Saotome asking us to meet her here today for some reason; did you…?"

Ranma was lost, not to mention slightly baffled by this comment: "Message? What message?" He started to sweat with the way the others were looking quizzically at him. Just then, his mother and Doctor Tofu entered the room. Seeing some familiar faces, Ranma decided to get some answers from them: "What's going on Mom?"

Nodoka froze slightly, a look of shock on her face clearly visible as she caught sight of her son. "Ranma…? What are you doing here...?" _'Oh, that's just perfect! Out of all the times he could have shown up, it'd have to be just now…'_ She then turned to Doctor Tofu. "Could you go and give Ranma a quick physical, please?" Doctor Tofu nodded with a small smile on his face and gently took Ranma by the shoulder, gave it a small squeeze and started to guide him out of the room.

As Doctor Tofu was escorting him out of the room, Ranma still had enough time to fire off some more questions to his mother: "Why are all these people here mom? Just what is going on here…?" The door slammed shut, cutting the rest of the questions he had off. Nodoka then took a deep breath, turned to her guests and started to talk.

"Hi there, I'm Nodoka Saotome… I'm very glad you all decided to accept my invitation. I'm sure you all have many questions and I promise I will answer as many of them as possible, but first… I really need your help, because without your talents, without your intelligence; our world and maybe even our universe could be destroyed!!"

--

Hi there folks! Sorry for not updating until now... But the saying "1 inspiration, 99 perspiration" is quite true! Just to let you know, I'm now looking for a beta reader for this story. If you're interested and have a reasonable knowledge of all the series I'm using, please PM me with your details, as well an improved version of chapter one as proof of your skills. Also, don't forget to vote for the secrets and unique powers you want to see please... One more thing, if anyone wants to leave anonymous reviews, I've enabled them. So feel free to speak your mind!


	4. Briefing the team & DNA Resequencin

After dropping her bombshell about the world being in great danger, Nodoka quickly called up some video footage on her TV screen. The first clip showed what appeared to a meteor slamming into the ground somewhere in a large city, apparently located somewhere in North America… However, when the dust had cleared, a very large group of reptilian creatures along with what appeared to be a human male, but with three horns coming out the back and sides of his head were standing where the meteor had impacted the ground. The instant they had landed, he barked out a quick order: "Lava lizards, attack," and his minions quickly fanned out to search the surrounding area…

The second clip was in another large city, this time somewhere in Europe. This time, with a weird burst of snowfall over the surrounding area; a human-like being, but with hair that had the appearance of ice crystals, appeared. He was accompanied by several golem-like creatures, all armed with sickles. With a mere gesture of his staff, he then strode off with them following at a respectful distance, seemingly looking for something…

After both videos had ended, Nodoka turned again to her guests, who were looking at the screen with various expressions of disbelief and scepticism. "That footage was taken three days ago... The first clip was of Moltor and his minions, the Lava Lizards. You also saw his brother Fluriuos with the Chillers, his servants. I know they don't look anything like each other, but I can explain. Long ago, well before recorded history officially started, these two brothers attempted to steal the Corona Aurora, a legendary item so powerful, that it could make the person who wore it almost unstoppable. However, the crown was too powerful; it cursed them, turning them into the creatures you saw in those clips and then banished them to separate planets, imprisoning them in their own elements. In order to prevent anyone else from attempting to steal its power again; the protector of the crown took the five jewels, the primary source of all the crown's powers and scattered them all across the world, then hid the crown itself somewhere he had hoped it would never be found by mortals! Unfortunately, six months ago I managed to find the crown despite all the odds. By doing so, I unwittingly freed the two brothers from their separate prisons... Now thanks to my actions; they, along with Kami only knows what else, will be arriving on Earth to look for the crown!" Pausing a moment, she turned to where her safe was. Opening it up, she took out the crown, turned to show it to them and spoke: "Please, I need all of your help to prevent this from falling into the wrong hands!"

"Wait just a minute; let me get this straight… You expect us to travel all around the world, looking for five jewels from an ancient myth while fighting off the forces of evil, who are also after these jewels to use for their evil plans? What's more, you don't even have a clue where to start looking for the jewels… And to top it all off, these guys seem like they're willing to play hard-ball from the start! I've got one question for you...? Are you insane," Tatsuki asked, her eye twitching a little at the sheer audacity of Nodoka's request. "Sorry if that was a bit rude, but this seems to be more like a fairy tale, or the plot of a bad TV show, to me... These guys look like something out of a Super Sentai series and the story you just told us also sounds like it came from that kind of show! Even if it's all true, how do you expect us to fight them? While I'm fairly good at both fighting in normal tournaments and self-defence, even I can't take on entire armies..."

"Well, first of all, when you put it like that Arisawa-san, the whole thing does seem a little far-fetched… But, I swear on my personal honour that it's all true and I do need your help and I'll richly reward you all for your time and effort! Also, I can turn all of you into Power Rangers to help even up the playing field against Flurious, Moltor, their minions and any other foes you may face while you're searching for the jewels," Nodoka replied. While she appeared calm and collected on the outside, she was cringing on the inside: _'I don't want to let any of them leave, they're my first and best choice for this task! No-one else I've looked up even comes close with the skills that'll be needed... But I also can't force any of them into doing anything they're not keen on. I won't be like my husband; using a person's sense of honour against them to get what I want from them!'_

"Power Rangers…?" Tatsuki repeated, her jaw dropping in shock. "You're kidding, right? This is sounding more and more like a Super Sentai series with every passing second! Just how can you pull that process off exactly? I'm sorry, but I think I'm going to decline your offer… This whole thing sounds off the wall to me!"

"I'm afraid I will have to decline your offer too, Mrs. Saotome..." Ryo now spoke up, while wearing a polite expression: "I'm not much of a team player and I too find it hard to believe that you can offer us the ability to become Power Rangers, despite my past experiences." Mentally however, he was having a quick conversation with his Yami: _**'You ever hear anything about this 'Crown of the Gods' before, Bakura?'**_

_**'No, not even a whisper and I was among the best thieves of my time,'**_ Bakura replied while wearing a frown, as he found Nodoka's news troubling. He continued: _**'But it was either several hundred years before my time or in a land far from Egypt... As for the whole Power Rangers thing, don't be so quick to dismiss it as hot air! I wouldn't be surprised if she really could do something like that. After all, you're sharing your body with a five thousand year old thief from Ancient Egypt, so we've got no place to say what is or isn't possible… But it's your call in the end and I'll stand by you whatever choice you make!'**_

"Well, you can count me in anyway," Serenity now spoke up, while wearing an oddly determined expression on her face. Ryo, Tatsuki and Bakura spun around to look at her, while they all blinked owlishly in surprise at her statement, not expecting her to actually sign up. She continued to speak, ignoring the odd looks she was getting: "I know that there are some things that can't be easily explained by modern science, given some of the things my brother has told me about his adventures with his friends in the past, not to mention that time I got caught up in one of them... Besides, I can tell you're really serious about this whole thing and it certainly seems like you'll need all the help you can get!"

Finally, the blonde-haired boy, who had remained silent until now, spoke up: "I'm in too... While this whole deal does sound a little unusual, even by my standards, it's still got to be better then my last job was! And I won't sit around and let that kind of power fall into the wrong hands, if there's even a slim chance I'm able to do something about it. You sure you guys don't want to stick around for this?" This last comment was directed to both Tatsuki and Bakura, who were grabbing their bags from where they had put them when they'd first arrived. They paused briefly, then shook their heads and started to walk out.

As both Tatsuki and Bakura made their way towards the door, Nodoka made no move to stop them, respecting their decision to leave. She sighed: _'Who else can I choose now? At least I've got two out of four to agree to help me, which is two more then I was expecting… This whole idea does sound totally crazy, especially to those who haven't been exposed to all the unusual things that exist in this world!'_ Just then several flashes of yellow lightning struck the ground in front of the door, making Tatsuki and Bakura jump back in shock. Nodoka groaned and put her head in her hands: _'I thought I told him __**not**__ to force any of those I chose to accept the task, if they weren't willing!'_ Then a ghostly image appeared in front of the door, forming itself into the form of a knight.

"**She spoke the truth,"** the ghost spoke aloud, his ancient voice echoing with power: **"The fate of your planet, your entire universe even, rests in all of your hands! I am far too weak in this state to go after any of the jewels myself… But know this: this quest is vital! If we fail, life as you know it will be no more…"** The light faded away and the figure vanished into thin air.

Tatsuki and Ryo now shared a brief look, while they both processed this latest piece of information. Tatsuki still looked a bit sceptical while Ryo seemed torn. They then developed a determined look on their faces, gave each other a firm nod and turned to Nodoka, while speaking at almost exactly the same time: "Fine, we're in too! So when do we start?"

Nodoka mentally breathed a sigh of relief, smiled and nodded: "That's very good to hear! I do apologize for my patron's more aggressive sales pitch though, I didn't want to force you into anything you weren't sure of... But he was right about one thing; this task is of the utmost importance. And each of you are the top choice in each of your separate fields for this job. Now, if you would follow me, I'll show you to where you'll be taking the first step in becoming Power Rangers…" She then pressed a button on her desk located underneath a statue, causing one of the bookcases to slide sideways into the wall to reveal a lift. They all boarded the lift, which then set off downwards, while the bookcase moved back into position, leaving the room looking exactly like it had been mere moments before.

A few minutes later, Dr. Tofu came into the room by himself, muttering softly: "Well, Ranma's condition hasn't got any worse since my last check-up, that's some good news! But his levels of Ki energy are still surprisingly low, given the amount of time they've had to recover... No matter, I better meet up with Nodoka to start the DNA re-sequencing on all the candidates!" However, he was so distracted by his analysis that he hadn't noticed that Ranma had walked into the room behind him, just in time to see him call the lift.

Ranma just stared in shock at the surreal scene playing out in front of him; it was like something out of that weird Western puppet show he'd seen on TV… He'd never admit it to anyone, especially his father, but he enjoyed watching cartoons and some shows that most people his age would call childish whenever he got a rare moment of peace. It was his way of catching up on what he thought a normal childhood was supposed to be like, along with reading his adventure books. Even though he'd been on several adventures and travels of his own, he still liked to read about the quests of both fictional and real-life adventurers, just to expand his knowledge of other countries and cultures. A loud hiss interrupted his thoughts. Looking up, he saw Dr. Tofu board the lift which soon set off again, while the bookcase slid back into its original position. Shaking his head in amazement, Ranma decided to wait a few minutes and then call the lift himself to follow Dr. Tofu while thinking: _'Right, I'm getting to the bottom of this mystery, one way or another!'_

**#15 minutes later, underneath the mansion#**

"Now just remain calm everyone! The process should only take a few more moments to complete. However, don't be too hopeful for laser-beam eyes or anything like that, this machine can only enhance what's there within you already…" Dr Tofu spoke up, while he and Nodoka examined the read-outs from a strange machine, consisting of a computer connected up to two pairs of what appeared to be strobe lights, each mounted on separate posts. Bakura, Serenity, Tatsuki and Naruto, who had finally introduced himself properly to the others, were all standing between the two posts as a faint white aura pulsed between the posts. As the white aura passed over each of them, there was an addition of colour to their own personal auras. Each change was unique to each of them: a light yellow for Tatsuki, medium blue for Naruto, black for Bakura and pink for Serenity. They had also each changed into a uniform Nodoka had provided for them. The uniform was a black top and bottom, with some coloured seams, each one of these personalised to the exact same colour that their individual auras had changed to.

Nodoka then spoke up again: "Thank you all for accepting my offer, despite any lingering misgivings some of you might have about this… The uniforms look good on you! Now, even as we speak; all of your physical and mental capabilities are getting enhanced by a DNA re-sequencer, lent to me by a good friend… Once the process is completed, you'll be able to do things and learn things that, even a mere month ago, you'd have thought impossible!"

"Is there any chance we're going to turn into a weird fly or something by this…?" Naruto asked, in what appeared to be a joking manner. On the inside, however, he was sweating bullets: _'That baka of a fox had better not mess this up for me...'_

"Not a chance! It's totally harmless… The odds are a million to one that something weird will happen!" Nodoka replied. Mentally however, she wasn't so confident: _'At least, I think that's the case…'_ Aloud, she continued: "But you are now stronger and smarter than when you first arrived…" Just then the white light and the low hum faded away, as the machine shut down. Nodoka continued to talk, gesturing with her hands to the room they were in: "Welcome to your new base! Now, I would never even dream of asking you to do something that I wasn't willing to do myself, so in a few moments I'll be joining you, both by going through the process you've just gone through and in the field as your leader: the Red Ranger!" As she was saying this, she was walking over to take up a position in between the two stands of the re-sequencer. "Dr Tofu, if you would be so kind…" Dr Tofu nodded and placed his finger over the button that would start the whole re-sequencing process for her!

Just at this moment, the lift door hissed open and Ranma stepped out, looking around at the control room in awe. He caught sight of his mother in between the two poles and called out in an enquiring tone: "Mom, what on earth are you doing?"

Nodoka jumped in surprise and spun around, so she was facing her son and started to talk: "Ranma, what are you doing here…? You need to go back to the Tendo family home! Surely everyone there must be getting very worried by now about where you are... If I know them, given their past behaviour, they're probably tearing up the district looking for you..."

"I am home Mom!" Ranma replied, with a little more heat in his voice then he had intended. Sighing, he continued: "You see, I've actually told them that I was going to be staying with you at the moment, for the summer at the bare minimum, until all the arrangements that Pops made are resolved in a way that makes everyone happy! Of course, I didn't tell any of them where exactly you were staying… I'm not that stupid! But I can't go back now anyway; it would just inflame the situation there even more than it has been in the past and right now Akane is probably really steamed at the fact I left without telling them beforehand…"

"Son, I really think," Nodoka started to speak, hoping to try and convince Ranma to head back to Nerima while she was sweating on the inside: _'If Ranma knew what I was planning to do here, he'd try and take my place, without any hesitations on his part. While I know he'd have all the skills needed for the job and his heart would be in the right place, the chance that his condition could get worse is too great. I don't want to risk losing him!'_ But whatever she was going to say went unsaid, as Ranma cut in...

"Listen here, Mom! I know that you're trying to look out for my physical and mental well-being, given that I'm still not fully recovered from my old injuries. Both you and Dr. Tofu probably think I should be taking it easy right now back in Nerima, to give my body a chance to heal properly... But I'm feeling totally fine now and besides, this place would be much safer for my recovery than back in Nerima! I do appreciate your concern for my safety, really, but I can't let you put yourself in the line of fire like this. You just aren't as young as you used to be and I don't want to lose you… Not when we've finally able to have a normal conversation, without anyone barging in! Besides, I just earned the right to teach Musabetsu Kakuto earlier today and I wanted to see how I could adapt it to teach normal people some of the things I've learned, without having to use all the crazy methods that I went through... And for that I'll need time to reflect and plan it out, time that I'd never get back in Nerima with all the 'problems' that plague me!"

"Now I remember where I've heard the Saotome name from," Tatsuki suddenly exclaimed, while she snapped her fingers together. "You're **the** Ranma Saotome, aren't you?" When Ranma slowly nodded his head while wearing a very nervous expression, Tatsuki then turned to Bakura, Serenity and Naruto, who were all wearing the same confused expression: "Let me explain what I'm talking about here... Ranma here is either the ringleader or main target, depending on who you talk to, of the fabled Nerima Wrecking Crew; or NWC for short as most of the normal people in that area call them! Nerima has always been known for all the skilled martial artists who live there, but these guys are supposed to be on a totally different level to even those who've lived there in the past ... They have apparently done so much property damage in all the fights they've taken part in over the past two years, whether it's just simply been collateral damage or done intentionally, they'd tie with the Sailor Senshi for the most destructive battles! And Ranma here is said to be one of the top ranked fighters of that area ever since he showed up, about two years ago, right before things got really crazy! But since the official reports from that area have been so sketchy, most people outside the area are of the opinion that these stories are just tall tales... So was I, until just now, when Ranma mentioned his fighting style."

"How do you know all this...?" Ranma asked, while raising an eyebrow. He appeared fairly composed now, but he was quite ticked off on the inside. _'How in the world does she know all this stuff about me? If Nabs has been selling my personal info and pictures to any magazines behind my back, I might just spread a few embarrassing facts of hers that she would not want people to know around Furinkan via Daisuke and Horoshi… After all it's only fair if she finds out just how annoying it can be to have details you wanted to be kept secret revealed for all to see!'_

"Well, my karate teacher used to teach in Furinkan as the PE teacher there seven years ago..." Tatsuki replied, wearing a neutral expression. "He said his time teaching there was three of the longest years of his life and you couldn't pay him any amount of money to go back there for a job, even if couldn't find work anywhere else! But he still has a few friends living there who kept him up to date with all the local news and informed him of any new martial artists of note who came there. I must admit, he was quite impressed with how skilled you were… But he wasn't too happy when he learnt just who your father was! Genma Saotome, according to him, is the worst kind of scum and given what I've heard myself, that's pretty accurate... Apparently, he's arranged so many deals that he's then run out on with keeping his end of the bargain, that his name has become famous among debt collectors as the ultimate target... The guy who finally gets to collect even one of his debts will be hailed as a hero amongst that crowd!" She then cringed at how she had put her statement and began to talk again: "Oops, I'm sorry if that caused any offence to either of you…"

"None taken..." Ranma replied, waving the apology off while sighing: "You're right about that though: Pops never did learn not to rush through things... He always wanted to make a quick deal to fill his empty stomach without much effort! That's meant he never even considered any of the long-term consequences of his actions... Or at least until they showed again up several years later, by which time he had almost always gone and forgot about the deal he'd made! When they did show up, he either dropped the blame for the whole mess on me or tricked me somehow into dealing with it for him... And to make things worse, the people he made the deal with always seemed to accept his lies at face value. Not one of them even questioned some of the most obvious inconsistencies in some of the stories he spun! This meant I always had to clean up after his messes, while he sat back and played Shogi with his old friend, Soun... Mind you, Soun has gotten much more willing to call him out on some of his dumber actions recently!"

Nodoka frowned slightly and was about to defend Genma, but she then sighed and nodded, conceding the point. She did remember her husband doing just that after the wedding attempt, when he'd tried to pin the blame for the whole mess on Ranma. His claim had been that it was Ranma's duty to marry Akane and unite the two schools of Anything Goes, but he'd have to deal with all his other commitments first: i.e. all the other people who wanted to marry him... This was despite the fact it had been all his fault that Ranma had been engaged to most of them in the first place, either due to an wedding agreement he'd made or the consequences of his actions impacting on Ranma somehow! "That's true, much as I hate to admit it…" she groaned, "My husband can be a bit, how can I put this, foolhardy with his actions!" Mentally, she muttered to herself: _'They don't have to know just how bad he actually is…'_

Fortunately, most of the multiple marriage agreements Genma had left behind him over the years had been resolved by some payments to cover the value of what Genma had stolen, along with any interest that may have built on the dowry over the period of time since they were made. Most parties were happy enough with just that and those that weren't ended up having to drop their claim anyway, due to her son winning his freedom by himself... There were only three outstanding claims left to deal with now, and they were all in Nerima itself! These were the Tendo vow to unite the two schools of Anything Goes, Shampoo's claim due to her tribal laws and Ukyo's stolen dowry. It wouldn't be easy, but Nodoka was fairly confident that she could take care of these arrangements in such a way that most of the people involved wouldn't lose honour, without too much trouble.

The only fly in the ointment that could cause her and her son problems, as far as she could see, was the Kuno clan in general... Nodoka shook her head in exasperation as she recalled what her son had told her about his past dealings with them, along with a few attempts of her own in recent months to get them to leave her son alone. Trying to deal with them rationally was totally impossible! Only Sasuke, the family butler, would listen to reason and he could do nothing to rein any of his charges in... Each member of the family seemed to live in their own private little fantasy worlds, where they could do no wrong! The truth rarely got through to them, due to them selectively editing the facts to fit the twisted point of view they wanted. And since they wielded so much influence in the area due to their wealth and position, very few people could do anything about them... And most of those who did have the power to do something actually refused to use it, saying they saw nothing wrong with their behaviour! Nodoka wasn't quite sure why this was the case, given all the evidence that she and others had provided, but she had a sneaking suspicion that some of these people had been paid a very handsome sum to turn a blind eye to the Kuno's actions and then discreetly dispose of the evidence gathered so that it couldn't be found and used again. But without any hard proof of this corruption, she couldn't do a thing...

"Hang on a second," Serenity spoke up again after the few moments of silence that followed Nodoka's explanation, holding her finger to her chin, in a very thoughtful pose: "I do remember reading something about there being a big explosion there six months ago, in a family dojo during an attempted wedding... It got crashed by some jealous rivals of both the bride and groom using weapons with lethal intent. But the local paper was saying that the actual cause of the explosion appeared to be a gas leak which then came into contact with a naked flame!"

"Trust me, that explosion wasn't caused by a gas leak..." Ranma replied with a sigh, as he and his mother winced slightly as they remembered the events leading up to that whole fiasco. He mentally added: _'At least Soun had the decency to apologize for using my "cure" as a bribe to try and ensure that I'd marry Akane... He's okay now with the fact that I'm just not ready to settle down yet and that I want to take things with Akane at my own pace, not just rush blindly in. After all, he was in a similar position marrying Mrs. Tendo because of an arrangement between their parents. But they got the chance to take the courtship nice and slow and he realised that he was trying to move things between me and Akane far too fast over the past two years... It's just so annoying that Akane is not even giving me a chance to explain my current position on the marriage arrangement to her! I just don't understand just what her current problem is with me, she should be happy that she's no longer under pressure to marry me until she's good and ready... After all, wasn't she against the whole deal in the first place?'_ Aloud, he continued: "I'm not totally sure what caused the explosion, but I am fairly sure that there were no gas mains running through that yard. Mind you, that whole day was a particularly bad one for the whole area, since the emotions of most of the people involved were running particularly high!" He was about to say more, but his mother then cut in.

"Okay, I know I've dropped a lot of things on you in the last half hour or so that you may be finding hard to believe... So, you can go outside for a few minutes if you want; to let you process everything that you've been told. Ranma and I, along with Dr. Tofu, need to discus some important matters..." The tone was friendly enough, but it was clear that she wasn't going to take no for an answer from her son. Noticing this and the serious expression on her face, Serenity and the others nodded and quickly left. Nodoka then turned to her son: "Ranma, we need to talk..."

**#Outside the mansion, a few minutes later…#**

"Man, can you believe it! We actually met Ranma Saotome… I actually thought he was just an urban myth that teacher of mine told my karate class to inspire us into pushing past what we thought were our limits to new heights!" Tatsuki spoke in a bit of an awe-struck tone, as she was walking along with the others with her hands behind her head. "Although, the same could also have been said about the Sailor Senshi, until they were caught on camera four years back… Mind you, they haven't been that active in recent months. I wonder though, can Ranma really perform energy blasts like the rumours say he's able to...?"

Suddenly, Ryo stopped dead in his tracks, causing the others to pause… "Wait! Did you guys hear that," he asked, wearing a concerned look while his eyes were squeezed shut. "It's so loud…" All of a sudden his eyes snapped open wide. From his perspective, it felt as if he'd somehow developed the telescopic part of Superman's vision superpower, along with the super hearing. He could see clearly all the way down the lawn to the end of the driveway, a distance of six hundred meters with trees and bushes in-between. It should have been impossible for any normal human, yet he was doing just that! _'Are these new powers because of my gene getting re-sequenced,'_ he wondered. But the sense of wonder he felt at this new gift of his was quickly forgotten as he caught sight of a strange human-like creature darting between two trees across the road near the bottom of the driveway. He quickly recognized it as a Lava Lizard from the footage that Nodoka had shown them earlier. He turned to the others and spoke loud enough for them to hear him: "Get ready guys, we've got company coming and they're not here for tea and cookies!"

"I don't see or hear anything at all... You sure your mind's not playing tricks on you?" Serenity asked, raising an eyebrow at Ryo's seemingly ludicrous declaration. Just then, a large group of Lava Lizards appeared from the bushes much closer to their current location, with their body language clearly indicating their willingness to fight… Serenity sighed deeply, as she quickly slipped into a basic defensive stance. She then took a quick, apologetic look at Ryo, as he and the others also slipped into fighting stances, and spoke again: "Well, looks like you were right Ryo! I'm sorry for doubting you… I guess it was too much to hope that we could ease into the situation gradually!" Just as she finished saying that, their opponents charged in, with a bestial roar. A fierce battle ensued, with Bakura and the others getting tossed around like ragdolls, but still getting in a few good hits in on some of their opponents. But it wasn't long before they were all knocked to the ground, battered, bruised and out-numbered! "Ouch..." Serenity groaned as she struggled to get back up from the brutal assault, "I'm definitely going to be feeling that tomorrow morning!" _'That is, if there is a tomorrow for us…'_

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to let these lizards push us around like this any longer!" Tatsuki snarled as she slowly picked herself off the ground, hiding her cringe as some of her bruises rubbed off her clothes. She took a deep breath, paused for a moment and then suddenly disappeared in a blur of motion. The others stared in amazement as a yellow streak could suddenly be seen darting across the lawn between several large groups of the lizards. In the time it would take to blink, each group was knocked to the ground, with bruises all over their bodies.

"Tatsuki, how did you do that? You were like a blur…" Naruto asked, jaw hanging in shock, as Tatsuki came to a screeching halt before them, wearing a massive grin and her breathing only slightly laboured. On the inside though, he was in awe: _'I wonder, was that similar to how the Yondaime was supposed to look like when he used the Hirasishin?'_

"I don't know exactly… If I had to place a bet though, my money would be on the gene re-sequencing finishing right then for me…" Tatsuki replied fairly calmly, while she took a few seconds to catch her breath. On the inside though, she was giddy: _'That was a rush! I've never been able to move that fast before in my life... And to think, that's a mere fraction of what I might be able to do now! I'm going to have to both apologize to Mrs. Saotome and then re-evaluate my skill level whenever I get the chance...'_ Just then she spotted a lizard, which had recovered from her attack faster then she had expected, come up behind Naruto with one of its sharp claws raised to strike him! "Behind you Naruto!" she shouted, mentally cursing the fact she had let her guard down in a dangerous situation and one of her new friends was about to pay the price…

Naruto reacted instantly, spinning around to face his opponent, while pushing both Serenity and Bakura out of danger. Seeing the lizard swing its claw down sharply and realizing there was just no time for him to block the strike, he made to leap out of the way of the attack. But even he didn't expect a focused blast of air to explode from his feet, allowing him to not only avoid the attack but let his jump clear the very treetops! When he landed, he then shoved his open palms towards the closest group of lizards, seemingly on instinct. What seemed to be a massive wall of wind erupted from his open hands, knocking several of the lizards over. Naruto then leapt into combat, unleashing a flurry of blows towards those that had remained upright after that weird blast of air he had used. Tatsuki was quickly put in mind of a quote she'd once heard a boxer use to describe his fighting style: 'Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!'... Naruto certainly seemed to be doing just that, always moving about while never giving any real chance for any of his opponents to make a clean counter-attack!

His fighting style however, seemed to be a real mixed bag... While he did have some good moves, several of his stances had holes in their defence wide enough to drive a truck through. While they wouldn't be that obvious to a rookie, with her level of practise she could tell. She then noticed he had placed his hands together in a strange way. His first and middle fingers on each of his hand were placed at right angles to each other, forming a cross-like shape. Her eyes then widened as several copies of him appeared, seemingly from thin air! They all mimicked his stance at first, then leapt into the fray independently, each of them picking their own target... _'What on earth…? It seems like a mere illusion at first, but those 'things' are actually solid copies of him that can act on their own initiative! I've never even heard of a move like that before, but it certainly seems to work for him,'_ she mused while she moved to engage some more lizards by herself and this time she vowed to make sure they were all down for the count. A stray thought crossed her mind: _'I sure hope that Serenity is holding out okay, she just doesn't really seem like the fighting type! Just like Orihime once was…'_

_'Whoa! These lizards aren't playing around… Good thing Joey and Mai gave me some basic lessons in self-defence; otherwise I'd be in serious trouble right about now! I just wish I'd taken the time to advance my training afterwards, instead of being content with just learning the basics… These guys just don't know when to quit,'_ Serenity softly whispered to herself as she took a quick glance to check on her new (and old) friends. They were now starting to go on the offensive against some of the monsters that were attacking the house, either by tapping into their new-found powers or combing them with some of their past training in martial arts to even up the playing field. Naruto and his clones were bouncing all around the place like multiple pin-balls, never staying in the same place for too long, keeping quite a few of the lizards tied up in combat with him. Meanwhile, Tatsuki was using her speed and karate skills to not only fend off her opponents, but take them down hard... Even Bakura was doing quite well for himself in combat, lashing out with well-oiled punches and kicks, pushing back any Lizards that came too close to him!

Meanwhile, she was just barely fending off three of them by herself. These Lava Lizards had isolated her a few minutes ago while she was distracted by Naruto's new ability, leaving her cut off from her team-mates who had their own problems to deal with, so they couldn't bail her out. This had indicated a very surprising amount of animal-like cunning and teamwork on their part. She was holding her own surprisingly well, considering her almost non-existent experience in hand-to-hand fighting compared to the others, but her foes just weren't giving her any chance to catch her breath for long and she was quickly starting to run out of steam! Her entire body was starting to ache, both from the earlier attack and the fact that she had never been pushed quite so hard before in her life... _'Man, this fight would probably be a lot easier if my genes would just finish their re-sequencing already,'_ she mentally grumbled to herself. _'After all, Tatsuki's super speed coupled with her fighting skills has already halved their numbers, really turning things around for us. We were on the ropes until that happened! Naruto's super agility has also been a great help, letting him and those weird clones he can make dodge in and out of combat at their own pace… I have to wonder though, are those clones part of his gene re-sequencing, or something he could do already, since he seemed to put his hands into that seal as if it was second nature...? Even Bakura's enhancements have already proven to be a major help to us, since these guys would probably have totally taken us by surprise if he hadn't seen or heard them coming and he's also been able to take care of himself just fine! I wonder what exactly my powers will be like… Maybe... maybe I won't get any powers at all! After all, Dr. Tofu did say that the augmentations would be based on our natural gifts. So I might not get enhanced in any obvious way by the re-sequencing process... No, I have got to stay positive; I will not be a burden to my friends and let them down when they are counting on me! Not like the last time, during Battle City, when those 'Big 5' creeps hijacked the blimp... That will never happen again,'_ she muttered darkly to herself, recalling how pathetic she'd been back then. Sensing her brief lapse in concentration, all three of the Lava Lizards leapt in, sensing a chance to finish the fight here and now…

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Okay folks, I'm really sorry about the long delay on posting this chapter, but life was first being a pain and then the FanFiction website was having problems!!!!! Also sorry about the cliffhanger, but I'd decided to stop it here, so as to show I'm still working on this story... Don't worry about Serenity, she'll be just fine! Any requests for what her re-sequenced power should be, let me know in a review... Personally, I'm leaning towards a "Lady of The Red" style, but I'll consider any and all ideas!


	5. It's morphing time!

_'Huh… What's happening,'_ Serenity wondered, as her still developing danger sense suddenly went haywire. She quickly ducked; placing her trust in her gut instinct, just like her brother and Mai had taught her to do in this kind of combat situation. That soon proved to be a good decision, as she caught sight of two claws passing through where her torso would have been, had she not ducked when she did! _'This is not good, they're really out for blood,'_ she muttered to herself. _'Wait a second, where's the third Lava Lizard…? Oh nuts, he must have outflanked me… That settles it; I need to get down to some more serious training, if I get through this!'_

Just then, she felt a strange tingling sensation located just behind both shoulders and on the lower part of her back, around the tailbone. The odd sensation quickly grew stronger and stronger, until it was almost unbearable. All of a sudden, the pressure erupted from those points, causing her to nearly scream out in pain. The points on her back formed themselves into two large wings made from an ethereal pink aura, while looking like they belonged to a Red Eyes Black Dragon. These instinctively blocked the attack that had been coming from behind her. Meanwhile, the pressure on her back resolved itself into a tail from the same kind of dragon with it swinging around wildly, forcing her attacker back… Serenity twitched in shock, as she caught sight of her new features out of the corner of her eye, not expecting this kind of thing at all. Her twitching increased when she noticed that her new features were in perfect synch with the rest of her body.

_'What the f…? Just how did I get wings and a tail, with them looking like something that a dragon would have,'_ she mentally screamed. _'I know Dr. Ono said to us that the whole re-sequencing process would only enhance what natural talents were within us already… So where exactly did these __**'things'**__ come from?'_ She then mentally smirked as a plan of action to even up the playing field and defeat the Lizards began to form in her mind: _'Well, at least they seem to be only energy constructs... I'd really be in trouble if they were real, how would I hide them from people? But I do seem to be able to control them easily enough, almost as if I've had them all my life! Why's that? But, I've got to focus on here and now for the moment, ask those questions later! Hmm, I wonder if...'_ She then concentrated, focusing on using her left wing to block a second attack from her two opponents in front and her tail to wrap around a leg of the Lava Lizard who was behind her. It was a strange feeling at first, having a few extra limbs than a normal person and of a totally different type then she was used to using, but she was shocked at how easily she got the hang of controlling them! The instant she felt her tail get a firm grip and a surprised grunt from the Lava Lizard, she yanked it forward, sending the Lizard flying into one of his two team-mates, knocking them both out... _'Alright, now that's what I'm talking about,'_ she mentally whooped at her success!

Unfortunately, in her elation, she had let her guard down and the remaining Lava Lizard took advantage of this brief loss of focus; slashing her right arm deeply with its claw. She let out a gasp of pain and slumped to the ground as her draconic features retracted; leaving her looking the same as before they had appeared. Stunned by the pain of the wound, she was totally out of it, leaving her opponent able to take its time to line up a potentially lethal strike.

Then, just as the Lava lizard raised its claw to finish the job, an odd golden coloured orb the size of a football slammed into it: sending it flying back, while also helping Serenity get her head back into the game, which happened just in time to see the blast detonate, knocking the Lizard out cold! _'Ouch, man that smarts,'_ she winced as she got up, cradling her injured arm in the other arm. _'Mental note, don't let yourself get distracted in combat when you pull off a successful move… And that rule goes __**'double'**__ when you've got more than one opponent to deal with!'_ She then paused as she saw the results of the strange attack. _'But I have to wonder, where did that blast come from, just who was the person who fired it and what exactly was it?'_ Able to take a quick look around now, due to the fact that almost all the Lava Lizards had been pushed back for the moment, she soon caught sight of Dr. Tofu, Ms. Saotome and her son rushing out of the house. Her attention was drawn towards Nodoka's son, his hands in particular, as there appeared to be traces of smoke coming off them. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise at this detail: _'Huh… did Ranma, if I'm remembering his name correctly, have something to do with that weird energy blast that saved my bacon just there? Maybe what Tatsuki was saying earlier is true… Those rumours she heard about him being able to throw some kind of energy blast, they don't seem quite so far-fetched right now!'_

"Alright Rangers, form up on me now! Quickly, there's not much time to waste," Nodoka shouted so that everyone could hear her, while she held tightly onto the crown. When all the members of the group had regrouped at her side after finishing up with their opponents, she continued to talk at a normal volume: "We need to lure them away from the city and into the countryside! If the battle we're having here spills over onto the streets of Tokyo at this time of the day, a lot of innocent people could get hurt... You three," she now pointed to Tatsuki, Naruto and Bakura, "will need to drive by yourselves. You'll find some quad bikes in the garage… Serenity, you're coming with me and Dr. Ono!"

Ranma then made to follow the three who heading to the garage, but he quickly froze as he felt someone grab him by the back of his shirt.

"Not so fast Ranma," Dr. Tofu spoke in a firm tone, while he held Ranma by the shirt with one hand and a briefcase in the other. He then continued in a gentler tone: "While I do applaud your enthusiasm to help out, you know that you don't have a driving license at the moment, or even know how to drive and I don't think we have the time to give you a crash course at the moment... So you'll be coming with us as well!" Mentally though, he was: _'Although, that weakness will be something we may need to rectify in the future, if the gut feeling I'm getting is right! And my gut feelings have never let me down so far, well except when it's come to Kasumi...'_

Ranma looked like he was going to protest this statement, but he then sighed and let himself be dragged along to the Humvee. He and Serenity got into the back of the Humvee, while his mother and Dr. Tofu got into the front, with Dr. Tofu getting in behind the wheel. He quickly started the engine, put it into gear and then gunned it down the driveway, scattering the Lava Lizards that tried to stop the Humvee. They were quickly followed by the others on their ATVs. The Lizards soon recovered and started off in hot pursuit, tracking them by the faint traces of the crown's aura.

#Twenty minutes later…#

"You guys were awesome, Miss… Wheeler wasn't it? You and the others were really giving it to those guys out there, so good job," Ranma spoke in honest praise as they were travelling along in the Humvee, right in the middle of the defensive formation that had been decided on as they went off-road, following Bakura who was taking the lead on his ATV, with Tatsuki acting as a mobile reserve alongside the Humvee and Naruto bringing up the rear. He still felt a little annoyed that he hadn't got the chance to do more to help, but he took some small comfort in the fact that everyone had got out okay and that he'd helped out where it really mattered. At the same time his mind was analysing how his fellow passenger, along with the other people his mother had recruited, performed under live fire conditions and how they compared to the other fighters he knew. The results pleasantly surprised him: _'Not bad, not bad at all! Sure, some of them are a little rough around the edges, but they all definitely have the potential and with a bit of training, they could become masters if they wanted to. More importantly, they have the right attitude to fighting, desiring to only use their skills to defend themselves and others... Not like the Kunos and Akane, who begin a fight to resolve an argument they're losing or prove their superiority over others!'_

Serenity blushed a little from Ranma's compliment, since she didn't believe herself worthy of that kind of praise, especially given what had happened to her… She then started to reply: "Well, I'm not exactly sure who was giving it to whom, but thank you Ranma, both for the compliment and saving my life!" When Ranma started to blush and wave what he did off as no big deal, she interrupted him: "There's no need to be so modest... It was obvious to me that you had something to do with it and Kami knows, I needed the help right then! And please, just call me Serenity; calling me Miss Wheeler just makes me look for my mom..." She suddenly winced, as her arm chose that moment to throb painfully from the slash that had brought her down in the fight. And taking a closer look at it, now that she didn't have to worry about being attacked, she noticed she was bleeding from a very nasty gash. _'Oh great,'_ she grumbled to herself, _'that wound is definitely going to leave a messy scar... Joey and Mai will freak out, wondering what I was doing to get that kind of injury! Looks like I'll be wearing long sleeves for the foreseeable future, until that scar fades.'_

"There's no need to go that far, I didn't do that much... Besides, you were doing just fine by yourself, without my help!" Ranma was speaking in a surprisingly bashful tone, having never been really thanked for his help in any matter before, even by Kasumi. Just then, he finally spotted what she was staring at... Changing his tone, he spoke in a concerned manner that reminded Serenity of how her brother would speak to only her when they were younger, before they had been separated: "You okay there Serenity? Why didn't you say that you were hurt! Here, let me help you with that…" Not giving her a chance to protest, he gently took her arm in both his hands, with the gash in between both hands and closed his eyes. Serenity was about to ask him what he was doing, but she then felt a strange tingling sensation dancing up and down that arm and saw a brief glow pass between Ranma's hands, along the length of the wound. To her amazement, the wound started to close itself up rapidly, with the blood quickly forming a scab, and then flaking off to reveal unmarred skin. "There we go, it's good as new! Now how does that feel," Ranma asked, looking a little surprised himself at the sheer speed of the regeneration.

"What in the world… How did you do that Ranma?" Serenity gasped in shock, not quite believing her eyes. Her arm was no longer cut up or even bloodied; in fact the only indication that she had ever been hurt at all was the torn sleeve of her jacket with a few minor blood stains on it. She continued to stare at where the wound had been just moments before; even going so far to touch her bare skin there, trying to tell if it was just an illusion, while she spoke softly in awe: "There isn't even a scar left and I thought that wound would have left one for sure!" Her mind was now reeling from everything she was seeing, since Ranma was doing things that she had thought were impossible: _'This guy's truly amazing... Such a strange power, that he can apparently use for either destruction or healing, depending on the situation he's in! Most people I know would only see the destructive potential of his power and would either desire or fear it...'_ She then noticed that Ranma was looking a little paler then before, possibly from what he had just done. "Are you feeling okay Ranma," she asked, looking quite concerned for someone who'd helped her out twice already. _'I sure hope he's alright; I'd really feel bad if I caused him any trouble. He's one of the few decent guys I've actually met in a long time, one who doesn't let his hormones control his every waking moment or treats me differently because of my intelligence...'_

"Nah, I'm fine Serenity! Doing that technique just took a little bit more out of me than I expected, that's all… See, I'm just fine now," Ranma quickly replied, as he regained his colour. Mentally, however, he was sweating: _'Phew, I definitely need to be more careful! I only did two Môko Takabisha and a minor Ki transfer to boost Serenity's healing factor up a little so that her arm would heal faster without leaving any scarring. But I sure wasn't expecting the results to be that quick! And the drain on my Ki reserves from doing those techniques, it felt like I'd just run a marathon at top speed from start to finish, back when I arrived in Nerima... Thankfully, it was only a temporary situation and I'm back to normal now! No need to worry mom about such a minor thing like that... But it was sweet of Serenity to worry about me! I've rarely had people worry unconditionally about me like that before, apart from Mom and Dr. Tofu. Especially not a person I've just met an hour before…'_

Unfortunately for Ranma, his mother had seen the whole exchange between the two and she was now quite worried about what this **'minor thing'** could potentially mean for her son! _'That's my son alright,'_ she mentally sighed from the front passenger seat in the jeep, while Dr. Tofu was driving along the trail: _'He's far too concerned about the well-being of others at times, so much so that he ends up ignoring his own health and state of mind trying to ensure all the people he cares about are safe and happy, even if it means his own desires end up getting pushed to the side... And while most of his efforts to help have been appreciated by strangers and people he doesn't know that well, Ranma has never gotten any long-term thanks from some people in Nerima! He's had to pull them out of quite a few dangerous situations, ones that they may have gotten themselves into... But they never say thanks, since they're too full of pride to admit they even made a mistake! That'll be something for me to resolve, another day... Much more serious than that problem is the fact that he's now using more far more Ki than is normal for him! He used to be able to do much more than that, while only using a quarter of the Ki... But that was before his fight with Saffron and then the failed wedding incident! Just how far along is his condition,'_ she sadly wondered, intending to ask Doctor Tofu about his findings when she got a chance... She then smiled softly: _'At least he's made a new friend, one who honestly wants to just be friends with him without any catches, for now at least... I just hope she takes his curse well, since I don't think he'll be able to hide it for very long!'_

Just then, the jeep screeched to a halt, as Dr. Tofu slammed on the brakes as Bakura had pulled up all of a sudden. The reason they had all stopped soon became clear: a large group of white golem-like creatures armed with sickles were blocking their path and from the looks of things, they weren't here to make friends.

"Umm, correct me if I'm wrong," Naruto asked aloud while wearing a concerned expression, "but aren't the Lizards behind us, so who are these guys?"

"Wait, these guys are Chillers…" Bakura suddenly replied while both he and his Yami mentally swore a particularly venomous Egyptian curse, one which could be traced back to the time of the Pharaohs. "It looks like Fluriuos has decided to join the party now!"

"Well, looks like we're going to the big time," Nodoka muttered softly to Dr Tofu, who nodded in response, both of them not happy that things were advancing so fast. Nodoka was particularly worried: _'This is bad, very bad indeed! This situation is really starting to get out of hand. First Moltor attacks, now Fluriuos shows up while we're still reeling from the first assault... Talk about a trial by fire and ice for my team!'_ Aloud she continued to talk, while she quickly took out the briefcase and opened it, revealing five strange devices: "On that subject, I think it's now time to give you your Overdrive Trackers... These are what will actually allow you to transform into Power Rangers. Their activation phrase is 'Overdrive Accelerate'! You know what to do…" As she was saying this, she was handing out four of the morphers to Serenity, Tatsuki, Bakura and Naruto. When the last of them got their morphers, Naruto shouted: "Alright guys, let's do this thing," as they all darted off to take up a defensive position to defend the crown.

"Mom, I want to help," Ranma started to speak, but was interrupted by his mother holding up a hand…

"Ranma, I'm sorry but it's just too dangerous for you. After all, you're not at 100% health yet despite how well you might claim to be," Nodoka spoke in a slightly exasperated tone. _'You're just not in any real condition to fight for long periods of time, if what happened a few minutes ago is any indication of your condition,'_ she mentally added.

"I don't know about you guys, but we can't wait around for Mrs. Saotome! So let's Ranger up," Bakura shouted out as he and the others quickly interposed themselves between the Chillers and the jeep. "So, you guys ready," he asked when everyone was in position. At their nod, he then led the call: "Overdrive Accelerate!" They quickly flicked their morphers to the armed position and ran the. There was a brief flash and they appeared in their ranger outfits. After taking a few moments to admire their new appearance, they closed with the Chillers to fight them off.

"I'm sorry about this Ranma, but my team needs me… My final answer's no!" Nodoka spoke in a firm tone that permitted no argument. Ranma looked hurt, but he reluctantly nodded in agreement. She then grabbed the last morpher from the briefcase and leapt out of the jeep, landing with a level of ease and grace that Ranma hadn't thought she was capable of. Just as she was about to activate the morpher however, two of the Lava Lizards; who had finally caught up with the little convoy, came up from behind them and grabbed her. In her attempts to break free, she accidently dropped the morpher she was holding, much to her horror: _**'NO!**__ Of all the times I had to be butter-fingered, it would have to be now…'_

Everything seemed to go into slow motion for Ranma at that point. Leaping out of the jeep, he grabbed for the morpher that his mother had dropped as she was trying to break free from her captors, who were dragging her off. Picking it up, he used his Ki to spin it briefly in his half-closed hand before grabbing it properly to arm the system. Taking a deep breath, he cleared his mind and focused it on what he was planning to do: _'Forgive me Mom, but I've got to do this! You mean far too much to me and I've vowed to look after all those I care about, no matter what the cost would be to me...'_

Nodoka saw her son grab her intended morpher and quickly increased her desperate struggles to break loose from the two Lava Lizards that had grabbed her; despite the fact she subconsciously knew it just wouldn't be enough and that she was already too late to stop him from going through with his plan: _'No! It should be me risking my neck... Not him,' she mentally cried. 'Hasn't he done enough to save the people he cares about already and make up for all the negative karma on our family name?'_

"**Overdrive......... Accelerate.........!"** Ranma shouted out as he ran the Overdrive Tracker down along his arm, causing it to activate. From his perspective, his current surroundings changed to a strange metallic room. The morpher in his hand projected an image of a red and white jumpsuit that covered him from head to toe, complete with red boots and gloves. These took actual form on his body, while replacing his standard outfit. The last thing to appear was the helmet, looking like a modified biker's helmet. _'Alright, time to take care of business,'_ Ranma thought to himself as he charged forward to enter the battle, so he could rescue his mom!

"Look, its Ranma," Serenity exclaimed as she knocked down her current opponent, catching his transformation out of the corner of her eye. It was all she had time to say, before she had to deal with her next foe. But the message was received by her team-mates: Ranma had entered the battle!

"Drive lance," Ranma called out all of a sudden, summoning the weapon his Ranger form had into his hand… It looked like a spear with a retractable blade. He quickly twisted the weapon around in his hands, feeling it out for its balance… Nodding his head in approval, he then leapt into the combat, jumping and slashing at Lava Lizards and Chillers alike. Every strike he made took his opponent down. One brave Chiller made a head-long charge, jumping high into the air as he went, hoping to catch Ranma off guard! But Ranma, seeing him coming, simply counter-charged. As he did so, he slammed the base of his spear into the ground, using the change in momentum just like a pole vault competitor to match the Chiller's height. He then delivered a powerful kick to the Chiller, sending it flying back into the cliff, where it shattered into small pieces of ice. "Guys, they're not living creatures at all," he shouted: "Just think of them as moving versions of the Terracotta Army…"

"You got it Ranma! Drive Slammer," Bakura called back in response, summoning his own weapon: a large hammer with a long shaft. First, he threw it, with it taking out several of his opponents, before it started to return like a boomerang. "Its Slammer time," he called out as he leapt into the air to catch it again, before slamming it to the ground, resulting in a huge shockwave that destroyed the remaining Chillers and Lava Lizards. All the while his Yami was humming away to the song: 'Can't touch this'!

"Drive Vortex," Naruto now cried out, as he summoned his weapon: a fan shaped like a jet turbine. The Chillers facing him looked like they were about to laugh aloud at his silly weapon. However, their mirth quickly died away, as Naruto used it to launch himself high into the air. While airborne, he fired again, this time producing a truly massive whirlwind, the sheer force of the wind ripping them to shreds…

"Drive Claws," Tatsuki yelled, as she leapt into the fray. Each of her hands held a pair of large, digger-shaped claws. "Can you ice cubes dig this," she quipped as she used these claws to throw a large quantity of rock towards a small group of Chillers, destroying them all. Using this brief interlude to size up the situation, she took a quick look over towards where each of the others were still fighting away and let out a low whistle, quite impressed at the amount of skill they were all displaying: _'Wow! Ranma's quite good at this, incredibly so… If anything, all the rumours I've heard actually __**understate**__ his skills! And Bakura's not too shabby in a straight-up fight either… Especially given the fact that he admitted that he's more of a misdirection type, only striking from the shadows after he's worn his opponents down first! Naruto is doing fine too, but that's no surprise, given just what he did back at the mansion… What's his story? As for Serenity, she's doing amazingly well for a rookie! I would never have been able to do some of the things she's doing, back when I first started out… But I guess part of the re-sequencing package included some combat training, not to mention she's more agile then I am…'_ Seeing a few more Lava Lizards approaching her, she sighed: _'Oh well, time to take the rest of these guys out now!'_

"Drive Geyser," Serenity shouted, as she fired her weapon while back-flipping away from a group of Chillers. It wasn't based on anything she could easily identify, but she did know that it was able to a very powerful jet of nitrogen-cooled water! And it was incredibly powerful, destroying the Chillers that it hit. Part of her had been uncomfortable with destroying living beings, but Ranma's statement that they were just mindless drones had made it easier for her to fight them….

"Red line time…" Ranma suddenly called out as he now darted through a large group of Lava Lizards and Chillers alike, at very high speeds with his spear held horizontally, before coming to a screeching halt. At first, it seemed as if nothing had actually happened… All of a sudden however, almost all the Lava Lizards and Chillers, even those that the others were dealing with suddenly froze before exploding into tiny pieces! But Ranma didn't stop to admire his handiwork, he'd seen that his mom was in trouble and he knew that she needed help, fast…

#At that same moment…#

Nodoka flew through the air, but managed to land on her feet, if only just. She didn't get a chance to recover though, as Moltor quickly closed the gap again. Grabbing her by the neck he growled: "Where is the crown? Give it to me!" But Nodoka said nothing in response, spitting defiantly in his face. "You'll pay for that insult! Prepare to meet your ancestors," Moltor snarled, as he raised his sword to strike her down. Just then, two laser blasts slammed into Moltor, forcing him to let go of Nodoka. She quickly got back to her feet, blinking in shock as Ranma, in the Red Ranger outfit, quickly showed up on the scene, holding his Drive Defender in blaster mode and pointing it at Moltor.

"Back off!" Ranma warned; keeping his blaster trained on Moltor while he placed himself in the best position to protect his mother from Moltor. Moltor scowled darkly at this mere **'child'** who'd dared to hurt him… Ranma was quickly joined by the other Rangers, who had easily taken care of the remaining foes left after the final attack he'd made. They just stood there, in a stand-off, both sides unwilling to back down from the conflict. Neither side even dared to blink, everyone knowing that it would take only a single moment of inattention to create an opening that the other side could then take advantage of…

The tension was broken by a group of Lava Lizards coming up to Moltor. One held the Corona Aurora in one of its claws, much to the shock and horror of the Rangers and Nodoka. Moltor grabbed it from his minion in triumph. "Finally, the Crown is mine," he gloated, holding the crown above his head in one hand.

"I'm sorry Nodoka, but they were just too strong for me..." Dr. Tofu gasped, as he came over to where the others were standing, looking quite battered. It was obvious that he'd been roughed up by the Lava Lizards that had grabbed the crown from him.

Moltor chose this moment to speak up again: "The choice is yours, Rangers... Either you come after me and the crown, or…" All of a sudden, Moltor unexpectedly spun around and unleashed a powerful fireball at the top of the nearby mountain, blowing its top clean off and unleashing a massive amount of lava towards the town located near the bottom of the mountain. Moltor now continued his threat: "Save the town below… You wanted to be heroes, be heroes!" He then laughed; a cold mocking laugh, before turning away and teleporting back to wherever he had come from, along with his bodyguards. Nodoka and most of the others looked on in horror at the lava flow, which was rapidly nearing the town. The residents of the town were all fleeing for their lives, but it was quite obvious that most of them wouldn't be able to make it to safety!

"Right then," Ranma suddenly spoke in a firm tone, catching everyone's attention, "Here's what we're going to do..."

Hi there folks, I'd like to make a request… If any of you have access to a YouTube account, could you try and make an intro video to my story?


	6. Making the headlines

Hi guys, EDK here again! Sorry about the long delay, but was stuck trying to write a longer chapter and decided to post what I had writen. So here's the disclaimer: I don't own any of the series referenced here, only the plotline... Now on with the show!

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Ranma reacted in an instant, all the years of his training kicking in... "Right, our first priority is to stop that lava flow from hurting anyone! We'll get another chance at getting the crown back, but human lives are more important… Tatsuki, Naruto and Serenity, you guys try to stop the volcano at the source. Bakura and me will try and help out the people in the town… Now, let's do this!"

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#Several hours later, somewhere in Nerima#

**"That's right Urashima…"** A female reporter with pink hair and eyes on the TV, that everyone in the room was watching intently, replied to her co-presenter in the studio. **"Several hours ago, a volcanic eruption rocked the little town of Toride. Due to the unexpected nature of the eruption, there was no chance to evacuate everyone in an orderly manner, leading to widespread panic. Casualties were expected to be in the high hundreds, along with millions of yen in property damage. That is, until five mysterious strangers, each dressed as a unique member of an as-of-yet unidentified incarnation of the famous American super-heroes: the 'Power Rangers'; showed up. The Red and Black Rangers aided with the evacuation of the town, rescuing several stragglers, while the Blue, Pink and Yellow Rangers made the way up to the base of the volcano."** Footage of the red suited warrior shoving an abandoned car out of the way, then ripping off the warped door of another car to free a trapped woman and her child, played while the reporter continued to speak. **"Using their highly advanced technology, the three on the mountainside were apparently able to snuff out the lava flow at the source, leaving the other two to deal with the remaining lava flow."** The clips now showed the Black Ranger slamming his hammer into the ground, opening a massive chasm in the outskirts of the town that the remaining lava flowed into. **"Despite the fact that there was no loss of life and very little property damage, several burning questions remain unanswered… Who or what caused the blast, why did it happen and finally, just who were these masked heroes? But the people here are just grateful that these new heroes arrived when they did, as the situation could have been much worse, if not for their prompt response! This is Tamao Tamamura, reporting for JNN, signing off…"**

**"Thank you, Tamao!"** The anchorman replied. **"Now, joining us from CNN; over in the US, are two experts on the Power Rangers, Farcus Bulkmier and Eugene Skullovitch. They'll be talking with us about their past encounters with previous generations of these heroes and what this could mean for…"**

The TV was suddenly switched off, causing the brown-haired girl who had been watching the report with a great deal of interest to shoot a glare of annoyance at her younger sister, who was holding the remote: "Hey! I was watching that Akane… Turn it back on; we might still be able to hear more about these new heroes…"

"What, those guys as super-heroes? Yeah right! More like they're a bunch of posers," Akane snorted derisively in response, as she waved the remote about. "You actually believe that those guys were the real deal? Get real sis, no-one has the technology to put out a entire volcano! The whole thing sounds a lot like a publicity stunt for a new TV show or something like that… Even if they're the real deal, they should leave the superhero work to the Sailor Senshi!"

"Are you kidding me Akane? If it was a publicity stunt, it wouldn't have been on the news, not to mention as a breaking news report… And those guys far outclass the Sailor Senshi, since they helped out in a natural disaster and the Senshi have never done anything like that," Nabiki responded in disbelief. _'Were we even watching the same broadcast,'_ she wondered, baffled at how Akane could call these new heroes fakers after seeing what they'd done. "They saved that town and everyone in it, from a freaking lava flow and then stopped the same flow from going any further than the first suburb! And they did it, I might add; without anybody getting seriously hurt or killed and hardly any property damage… Sure I'll admit that the Senshi might, if they were in a similar situation, have been able to resolve the problem faster, but their way would have more then likely done a lot more damage to the surrounding area. Also, since there have been very few Sailor Senshi sightings outside of Tokyo itself, someone has to deal with all the Youma and other threats that pop up out there!"

"Oh please Nabiki, everyone knows that the Jûban district is THE hotspot for monster activity for Japan, if not the whole world..." Akane snorted as she continued to speak in a dismissive manner, ignoring all the points Nabiki had made, despite the fact they were fairly logical… "Besides, that footage looks faked to me… After all, how could those 'heroes' get that close to the lava without a special suit to protect them? And their suits looked far too thin for that purpose…"

"I'm with Akane on this one," Kasumi now spoke up, not giving Nabiki a chance to try and pick more holes in Akane's statements. Secretly, her thoughts turned a little malicious: _'This is a good chance for me to show Akane that, while our sister may have betrayed her trust, I've always been on her side… Nabiki had no right to ruin Akane's special day the way she did! She deserved a good smack, betraying our trust like that... But daddy's too weak to rein her in, not to mention give a proper punishment!'_

"You would be, Kasumi…" Nabiki replied, while trying to keep her features neutral, having made a reasonable guess at why Kasumi was siding with Akane. "Can't you see that Akane could be wrong about these guys? I've seen faked video footage before and let me tell you, that report was made with some fairly high quality footage… Most faked footage is deliberately made to a low standard, so as to make it hard to tell what parts are real and what parts were faked! Even if the footage really was faked, it'd have to be done by a real professional to make it seamless. And why exactly would someone go through all that effort to fool everyone? It just doesn't make any sense! Besides, the suits may have been designed to be able to withstand the intense heat while remaining streamlined, which is quite possible nowadays... Technology isn't so primitive anymore, despite what you two may think; it has advanced greatly over the years, despite the Nerima district being stuck in a sort of early 80's time warp with only the most basic technology trickling through to us. And that's thanks to most of the Kuno clan being luddites, who can't even work a mobile phone properly! Also, you should know that the Senshi can't be everywhere at once in Tokyo, not unless they split their focus and they're just not as effective in smaller teams… We're just lucky that whoever's in charge of the Youma has never bothered to try and strike more then one target at a time; since the Senshi seem to need Sailor Moon to deliver the final blow on every Youma, at least that's been the case most of the time! That is a potentially fatal flaw that I'm really surprised hasn't been taken advantage of more often… Besides, the standard method of dealing with a Youma the Senshi have is also flawed; their basic tactic is to use so much magical firepower to wear it down, that there's always massive collateral damage to the surrounding area. All well and good, but there's always a chance that there'll be a Youma someday that's designed to be agile enough to keep dodging every blast until the Senshi are too tired to fight back anymore. Sort of like what Ranma did, whenever you two sparred, at least until you lost your cool…"

"That's enough Nabiki!" Kasumi's voice was still reasonably calm, but the smallest bit of heat had started to creep into it. "Just what is your problem with Akane's opinion? Also, did you have to belittle her skills, just like Ranma did…?"

"My problem, what do you mean **'what's my problem'**!" Nabiki asked, incredulous at Kasumi's blind refusal to accept the truth that was placed right in front of her. "Why exactly should I apologize to Akane for, having a different opinion from her and pointing out a potential flaw in her fighting style…? It's a free country and everyone should be entitled to their own opinions… Yet she's trying to force me to admit that her point of view is right, even when it's obvious that there may be a slight flaw in her way of thinking! And I really do respect the Sailor Senshi and Akane's skills, but they need to learn how to vary their attacks and not be so predictable… Most, if not all, of the Senshi seem to go through the same motions to launch their attacks every time, no matter how fast their target is moving! That is only really effective on the slow, lumbering targets… Meanwhile, Akane keeps telegraphing her moves, before she even makes them! If both parties don't try to break their ingrained habits, they'll be in serious trouble against an opponent that knows how to take advantage of those flaws. Ranma and I were only trying to help Akane by pointing out the potential weak spots she has… It's not our fault, if Akane's so thin-skinned, she'd take any advice we tried to give her as an insult!"

Nabiki paused after this, shocked at what had come out of her mouth. Her response had been much more heated then she'd intended, as her own temper was apparently starting to fray… _'I can't believe this,'_ she mentally growled to herself, _'Kasumi is really being judgemental and only listening to one side of the story, Akane's! She can't even be bothered to think for herself and take a look at things from a different perspective. Sis, I know you're trying to mend your relationship with Akane, but you're going about it the wrong way entirely… The more you try to inflate her ego by pretending she's right about something, the harder she'll take it when the truth of the matter comes out!'_ Taking a deep breath to bring her temper back under rigid control, she continued: "Besides, Akane's claim that Japan's the only country that has to deal with constant monster attacks, with the Jûban district being ground zero for most of them, that's a complete load of rubbish… I've heard of a place over in America that had to deal with a similar situation over six consecutive years, with the first attacks starting back in the early nineties. It was called Angelic Forest; or something like that, in fact I think those two guys they were about to interview came from that area…"

"That's enough girls," Soun interrupted, seeing that the tension between all his girls was rapidly approaching the point where they'd attack each other physically. Once he was sure he'd got their attention, he continued: "Kasumi, Akane; you should really keep an open mind like Nabiki does... While she may not be quite as skilled in martial arts as Akane is, she makes up for it with her keen eye for detail and knowledge of other areas. I'd never noticed the potential flaws the Sailor Senshi had until she explained them just there and now that she pointed them out, they're obvious! She's also right about the monster attacks over in America; I remember reading all about the bigger incidents in the newspaper at the time…" The tension was instantly broken, with various reactions. Kasumi started to clean up the kitchen, looking a little ruffled at the unexpected outcome to the debate… Akane stomped out to the dojo to work out her frustrations, wearing a thunderous look! Nabiki went upstairs, presumably to her room, while wearing a slightly stunned expression. Finally, Genma got up to retrieve the Shogi board to continue the game he and Soun were playing before dinner… Soun himself just sighed and bowed his head in shame as he remained sitting at the table to mull over recent events, knowing that he'd almost let things get out of hand. _'That was close, but it's clear now, the girls are drawing up battle lines! And it looks like while Akane is still a little angry with Kasumi, they're both willing to join forces against Nabiki for the moment; since they feel that it was at least some of her fault that the wedding fell through…'_ He sighed, _'Why did I have to dote on Akane so much in the past? She's got Kasumi wrapped around her little finger, by making herself out as the innocent victim that Ranma picked on, despite the fact she has started just as many fights with him as he did! It's no wonder things got so bad, if she expects me to support her, no matter what she says or does... And I did just that in the past, even when I knew she was in the wrong! As for Kasumi, well she's just too trusting of family members and friends; she'll believe anything she's told, so long as the person appears to be truthful. Oh, I've been a terrible father to my girls alright, Nabiki in particular! Out of the three of them, she's been the one that I never really paid that much attention to, unless she caused problems. Has she felt that ignored by me, she never expected me to side with her against Akane and Kasumi? Well that's going to change! I've got to treat them all fairly from now on, praising them if they do well and disciplining the guilty parties if they get into a fight…'_ With that vow made, he started to help his oldest daughter clean up the kitchen before Genma came back, much to her surprise.

* * *

Nabiki sighed deeply, the last of her anger draining away from her as she entered her room. _'Man, I really underestimated just how bratty Akane has getting lately,'_ she grumbled to herself as she got out her schoolbooks, trying to get both her homework and money-making plans sorted out for the next day. Her stomach chose that moment to growl loudly, protesting at the small quantity of food that she'd ended up with, causing her to scowl darkly. She had been unlucky enough to be stuck sitting next to Genma during the afternoon meal. While Kasumi had given Genma more then enough food to start with, his sheer greed meant he'd still gotten up to his old habit of stealing food from other people's plates. And without Ranma to bear the brunt of his thieving efforts, he had stolen most of it from Nabiki's plate, despite her best efforts to defend it! Even when she'd tried to go for a second helping, Genma had quickly grabbed most of that portion as well… _'I can't believe I spoke to Kasumi like that,'_ she sighed again, replaying the argument they'd just had in her mind, their first major one in a long time. _'But she just made me so angry,'_ she briefly growled before taking a deep breath and counting to ten to rein in her temper again continuing with her analysis: _'siding with Akane like that and blindly agreeing to all the garbage that was coming out of her mouth without even trying to look at the whole matter logically… Can't she see that she's just going to make things worse, fuelling up Akane's already massive ego by catering to her every whim?'_

_'Actually,'_ Nabiki suddenly realized, _'Akane's had that problem with her ego taking over at the worst possible moments for over two years now…'_ Before Kuno had made that stupid announcement about first beating Akane in a fight before you even had the right to date her, everyone had seen Akane as just an average but popular girl, who was fairly grounded and a good friend to all! After that announcement and the first formation of the Hentai Horde however, while Akane had managed to win the fights every morning for two whole months, her ego had slowly started to swell out of control... _'She began to think she was untouchable, that no-one could defeat her.'_ Nabiki shook her head, still a little stunned at the memory of how her sister had reacted to the mere suggestion that she could lose in the morning fights after only two weeks of them. But Akane just wasn't aware enough of her surroundings to see that the only reason she was winning all the time was for two factors… The first one should have been easy enough to spot, if she had really been as skilled as she claimed to be: because of all the infighting the Hentai Horde did with its separate members trying to gain an advantage over each other; they actually just ended up making themselves an easier target for Akane. The other, slightly less obvious one was that Kuno kept going easy on her, due to his stupid crush. _'If he'd only used a bit more tact in his attempts to woo Akane, he'd have won her over easily…'_ Nabiki chuckled a bit, knowing how much of a sucker Akane was for romantic things, before sobering up. _'But Kuno had to try and ensure that no-one would have her except him…'_

Once Ranma had showed up however; he'd shattered any illusions Akane had held of how skilled she was by beating her easily in a spar in his cursed form. Then, once the curse had been revealed; both Kasumi and Nabiki, a little freaked out by it, had dropped the Tendo part of the engagement onto Akane's unwilling shoulders and her father had ignored her protests about it. It had been the first time in years that she'd not gotten her way with her father, once she'd thrown a temper tantrum… Ranma'd then interfered in her morning battle and had showed her that Kuno had been holding back on her for all that time! From there, things had only gotten worse for Akane… Everything that Akane took pride in or wanted to achieve, Ranma had either already surpassed her or someone would show up that was an expert in that field to challenge Ranma, which meant he was forced to quickly master it. But, while he may have sometimes rubbed her the wrong way, with some playful (to him) teasing, he never intentionally insulted her unless she started it. Right about the end of the first year though, they had finally started to get along better… While there were a few little hiccups along the way over the next year, for the most part it was all positive progress. But now, after the failed wedding, it was as if all that progress had never happened! Nabiki moaned as she remembered the way Akane regressed: _'How Akane remains so popular with most of the other students, despite her violent mood swings and sometimes reckless actions like the incident six months ago; is beyond me…'_

While Nabiki knew that she wasn't the most popular girl in Furikan, not by a long shot, it still stung her a little when she heard certain people talking behind her back about her 'business practises' with their 'holier then thou' attitudes! They did this, despite the fact that quite a few of these people availed of her services. Sure, she'd done a few things that weren't exactly ethical, but most of the time her actions weren't actually quite as evil as most people made them out to be... Her photos for example, had only ever showed Akane and Ranma doing their daily routines and properly dressed, never nude! Well, there were those topless photos of Ranma in girl form, but she hadn't gone further then the topless stage and he'd left himself wide open for that with the way he'd walked about without covering himself up… At least with her selling some photos of Akane and Ranma-chan, most of the boys lusting after those two were satisfied and they didn't get it into their head to try and take their own pictures, which would have been much more hazardous for all involved! After all, most of those boys would have taken any photo opportunity they got, even if it was of Akane or Ranma improperly dressed.

While there was certainly more then enough demand for picture that went further then the topless stage to make a lot of easy money off the more perverted members of the Hentai Horde, Nabiki had just plain refused to cross that line and take those pictures, despite what her sister or Ranma thought she was capable of... She wasn't suicidal, thank you very much! She knew that trying to sell pictures of her sister in any state of undress would more then likely result in the teachers finally cracking down on her operations, not to mention a potential visit to the hospital once Akane found out where exactly the photos came from… But almost everyone she came into contact with always seemed to be focused on all her actions that had painted her in the worst possible light, just like how Ranma was seen by certain people in Nerima, thanks to Akane's loud and insensitive mouth. Her constant complaints of him being perverted and a womanizer out loud, while there were totally unfounded, had meant his reputation had been taking a real beating in the district with most of the ordinary citizens that lived there.

As it happened, very few normal people in Nerima actually knew Ranma personally, with some even going out of their way to avoid him, due to his stigma of being such a weirdness magnet! Strangely enough though, none of the other members of the NWC; as she'd heard the people refer to those people who hung around Ranma regularly, including her; had to deal with this problem… Even the Kuno clan, with their Feudal Era views and total disrespect for those who got in their way, weren't snubbed by most people but even given preferential treatment. _'Probably due to all their money and influence in the area,'_ Nabiki thought darkly. While Kuno was the primary target to whom she sold most of her photos both of Ranma-chan and Akane, she'd held some qualms about selling photos of Akane to him at first! After all, it was because of his obsession with Akane (and just how that started, Nabiki had no idea) that Akane's temper had gotten as bad as it was. The way the whole engagement with Ranma had been forced upon her, mixed with the disgust she had for his curse, had just added fuel to her! But all the easy money she not only could, but had made off Kuno, had just been too tempting for her to pass up in the end…

She did have to admit one thing to herself though: Ranma wasn't that bad a guy! He was just a little bit rough around the edges and those edges were finally starting to smooth out… The curse and his first arrival (with Genma carrying him in while they were both in their cursed forms) had really taken her off guard though, not to mention the fact that he was too immature for her to even consider taking the engagement, at least at first. But as time passed she had found that, while he was growing out of his immaturity, his views on certain things (like her selling cheesecake photos of both forms) were a little too black and white for her tastes… 'Too bad; we might have made a good team together,' she mused: _'With both his skills and body, along with some of my ideas, the money would just have rolled in!'_ Sometimes she wondered just what would have happened, if she'd been the one to take the engagement with Ranma right off the bat, since it had been quite obvious from the start that neither Kasumi nor Ranma would ever develop anything more than a brother and sister relationship between the two of them…

_'Or that of a mother looking out for her son,'_ Nabiki ruefully thought, with the faint pang of loss that she felt every time that she remembered her mother hitting home again, despite her best effort to suppress it... Kasumi, Kami bless her soul, had tried her best; but she was no substitute for the real thing. She just hadn't been able to actually put her foot down and actually enforce any form of real order on anyone in the household! She'd even let Akane break her promise about not hitting someone in anger, not even an hour after Akane had made it, without even scolding her for doing so… Nabiki frowned as she remembered that detail: _'That was the first time I'd ever seen Kasumi act like a hypocrite with her actions, but it wasn't the last time!'_ She sighed deeply: _'well, while a relationship between me and Ranma might've been nice, it's never likely to happen now… We're just too different, what with our unique approaches to life and honour being fairly incompatible with each other right now. One of us would have to really change our ways for it to work… And both of us are just far too stubborn to admit we made a mistake! But, not having Ranma around without any idea when or if he's even coming back, its sure going to feel weird for a while... While the constant chaos that surrounded him got a little annoying at times, it sure kept things interesting, not to mention Auntie Nodoka's house calls! And all those kooky plans Genma cooked up with Dad to 'join the schools' through marriage over the last two years; it actually helped to bring him out of the funk he's been in since Mom passed away. I had almost forgotten how much passion for life he used to have! Without Mom around to bring it out though, he was only a pale shadow of himself, at least until the Saotomes showed up. Hopefully, he won't lapse back into that state! It did feel nice though, the way he told Kasumi and Akane off for not keeping an open mind, not to mention praising me for seeing something that other people have missed…'_ Smiling at that rare moment of praise, she took out her accounting text-book and started to work out the latest problems the teacher had set.

* * *

**#Right about the same time, back at Ranger HQ#**

"Did you see that? The way that Bakura opened up that chasm to absorb the last of the lava flows after you and Serenity cooled off the volcano," Tatsuki laughed as she entered the underground base with the others, after helping with the head-count and in Toride. 'Good thing our powers still work while we're morphed, otherwise that would have taken much longer and we could have fallen further behind Moltor!'

"Well, Moltor did tell us to be heroes… And we did just that! Don't forget, you played an important part too; opening the way for us to get at the core of the volcano. Neither me or Serenity would have ever gotten to it in time otherwise!" Naruto was also feeling good about their successful first outing as Rangers. _'It feels good to be a real hero again… I haven't done anything like that for almost three years! One of the major disadvantages of having to keeping a low profile was the way I had to let some slime-bags commit a crime right in front of me and being unable to stop it. But that didn't mean they got away with it!'_

"I am a little annoyed that Mrs. Saotome didn't tell us that the crown that Moltor grabbed was a fake until after he had taken it… But at least we were able to limit the damage to that town, so the day wasn't a total bust!" Bakura grumbled a little, but it was clear that there wasn't much heat in his tone of voice.

"Well, could you blame her for being cautious? It was a reasonable precaution, given the way that her house was attacked by those guys. Not only that, but we were able to fight without having to fake our reactions to him getting the crown… That helped us convince Moltor that he'd got the real deal! That made this day very successful, since we still have the crown and Moltor will hopefully be fooled by the fake for a while," Tatsuki replied, while wearing a pleased grin. She was happy that she finally able to make a difference when it really counted. Turning her attention to where Naruto was now dreaming up some merchandising ideas, she cracked a small smile and shook her head at his seemingly limitless enthusiasm… Her smile faded as she spoke up again: "I hate to burst your bubble Naruto, but until we locate all the jewels, we'd better keep our true identities secret…"

"What!" Naruto spluttered in disbelief. _'I'm tired of having to hide who I really am… Not to mention letting certain jerks take all the credit for my hard work!'_ "But why not Tatsuki… Don't you want to show the world what we can really do as yourself and not have to hide behind a mask?"

"Think about it for a second Naruto…" Serenity chose this moment to speak up and make her opinion heard. "If we revealed our true identities right now, all our families and friends would be put at great risk, since Moltor and his brother could decide to use them as bait to lure us into a trap; or as a bargaining chip for one of the jewels…"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that little detail… " Naruto replied with a sigh, mentally snapping his fingers. "But the whole merchandising deal is a good idea for the future, right guys?"

Ranma chuckled at the way everyone was interacting with each other now, after their first successful public appearance as Rangers, before he spoke up: "Maybe Naruto, maybe… But let's think about it later, once we actually have some of the jewels, okay? Well I'll talk to you guys again in a little bit. I have to see what mom wants to talk to me about…" With those parting words, Ranma entered the lift to return to the ground floor and his meeting with his mom.

* * *

"You wanted to talk to me Mom?" Ranma asked, after knocking on the door to her office and being invited in. He looked around the office, curious to see how it looked. The place was filled with various artefacts from various periods, along with a fairly old and battered fedora that had been placed in a glass case along with a leather jacket that looked about the same age and a bullwhip. _'I wonder why mom wants to see me,'_ he mused. _'Maybe… Maybe she wants to take the role of Red Ranger from me! It would make sense, since she didn't want me to risk my neck the way I did. But if she thinks that I'll let her risk her own neck, she's got another thing coming…'_

"Yes I did Ranma," Nodoka replied while she was looking at some kind of news report on the TV about the volcano rescue. Looking up from it, she stared at him firmly, before sighing and speaking in a defeated tone: "Well, while I am a bit disappointed that you deliberately disobeyed my order to stay out of the fight, I am also grateful that you not only saved my life, but the lives of all those people who called Toride their home. And it's quite clear to me now that the other members of the team really respect your field leadership skills… So, it looks like you'll be taking on the role of the Red Ranger, despite my misgivings about letting you join the team! After all, I was hoping that you could have a bit more time to recover and have the chance to experience a normal life for a while, but it looks like that's not likely to happen… I'll need to hold onto your Drive Tracker for a bit however, while I make a list of what tweaks will need to be done to make sure it works for you, in either form, without revealing the fact that you can change your gender. After all, you'll never know when you may have to morph after getting splashed with cold water! Maybe put a voice changer in the helmet, or something like that...."

"Okay mom," Ranma responded while he mentally breathed a sigh of relief, having expected more of a fight about being the Red Ranger from her. _'I made a promise to protect you mom, and I intend to keep it, no matter what…'_ Aloud, he continued to speak: "I'll try to not let you down! And thank you, for giving me a chance… Now I think I'll tell the others about my curse before I forget to do so!"

"Are you sure son? That is a pretty big step to take so soon," Nodoka enquired, quite surprised by Ranma's decision to reveal the curse now and to people he'd only met this afternoon. After all, it had taken him almost one and a half years to finally reveal his curse to her, his own mother… _'Although, to be fair to him,'_ she reflected: _'that was all due to Genma putting the fear of Kami in him of what I might have done to him, because of that stupid pledge we made! Yet another reason for him not to know what's going on; that fool has caused me and Ranma so much trouble, trouble that I'm still cleaning up even now… At least he believes that the legend of the Corona Aroua is just a fairy tale, which is a relief; it would be a disaster if he got his hands on even one of the jewels!'_

"Positive, they deserve to know this," Ranma replied with a determined look in his eye… "After all, they're my team-mates and possibly friends now! It's nice to have some people I can just talk to, without having to deal with gatecrashers. But the truth about my curse is something that could break their trust in me, if the truth comes out at an awkward time… I'm not going to let that happen!" Nodoka nodded her head in agreement, proud that her son was thinking ahead before he made any decision.

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I'm going to stop here for the moment... Next chapter, the reveal of the curse and reactions to it. Let me know what you think of the story so far, you don't even have to sign in! Just to let people know, the story is set in the current decade (2007 to be exact); with Nerima a region of Tyoko that is stuck in the 80's, thanks to the influence of the Kuno clan and their almost total lack of knowledge (barring Kodachi and chemistry) when it comes to new technology!

Some people may be wondering why I have Kasumi acting so cold in the story so far. Well the truth is, that's how I see her reacting to the failed wedding and what Nabiki did... She's the type of person that thinks their family should always stick together no matter what, even when one of those family members is acting like a spoiled brat or about to do something stupid. But, if you do something that she thinks has betrayed the family's best interests (even if you're a family member), watch out! She also is too willing to believe Akane, since that same trait makes her easy to be misled by a family member who she trusts.

Akane's acting so bratty because she feels that she was cheated out of her victory in the race for Ranma's hand in marriage. The way I see it, she always wanted to prove she was the best at something and claiming Ranma was partly down to that... She had nearly succeeded with the wedding attempt, but with both Ranma's delay in saying _**"I do"**_ and all the gatecrashers, she and the rivals are now all back to square one with him. So right now she's not a happy camper and all the other problems she's dealing with aren't helping matters... As for her favouring the Senshi, think about it, the girls of the group are on the front line and the sole male is fire and moral support! That strokes the part of her ego that thinks girls are better then boys (along with her school-girl idea of romance)... Also, they're the only heroes she's heard of regularly enough!

Finally Soun... He's finally starting to think for himself again, after following Genma's lead in **_"joining the schools"_** for almost two years. The failed wedding opened his eyes to how bad the situation was actually getting! This, along with Genma's odd behaviour, has made him start to wonder if he's been told everything and that it might be time to take charge of his own life once more...


End file.
